With only seconds left for the final whistle, Titanium skipper Shabeer scored from a penalty kick and equalised the score to extend the game into the extra time and later went onto win the match and enter into the semifinals of Federation Cup South Zone Qualifiers.
Titanium grabbed their deserved win with the goals from Ebin Rose and Shabeer as Chandini FC crashed out of the Federation Cup with a dismal show. Though Titanium had been the dominant force in the game, they failed to score from most of the chances they got.
It was only after the first goal scored by Chandni FC, Titanium showed some prowess in their attacks. The goal was scored from a penalty awarded from the handball conceded by Sathish while trying to defend a cross from Zubair K P.
Titanium players tried to level the score by attacking with high balls and long passes rather than a build-up play but the Chandni defence was defiant to those attacks.
Apart from being defensive, in the first half, Chandni tried to increase their lead whenever they could with some decent joint efforts from Zubair K P and Joseph Pereira. Also some great display of dribbling techniques from Chandni's new Forward Salavuddin C K kept the morale of the team high in the first half.
The second half saw a new Titanium as they changed their tactics and played more aggressive football with some good passing and technique skills, and substitutions. They had more and more chances and most of the time at least seven players were in the Chandni box looking forward to score or assist. They changed their tactics from high balls and long passes to build-up play and short passes.
It was criminal for the Chandini team to not mark former Kerala player and Titanium winger Usman as he constantly raided the box and handed over the ball to the strikers. The Chandni custodian and their captain Sakeer Hussain showed a remarkable display by saving at least 5 shots on goal, which would have been goals for sure.
In the 68 th minute, following a chaos in the Chandni box, a hue and cry for penalty was denied by the referee and the Titanium players had to be satisfied with a corner. However, another hand ball by Chandni defender Hashim Malik in the box permitted Titanium skipper to score from a penalty and the match went on to extra time.
The match turned lively in the first half of the extra time as both teams tried their best to score. But in the second half, Chandini players were tired and their defensive players made several mistakes, which were beautifully capitalised by Titanium's central midfielders and experienced striker Ebin Rose scored in the 114th minute.
Titanium now plays Bangalore's HAL in the next round on 3rd December 2009.
Titanium: Starting Eleven: KT Navas (GK), Sabir, Satheesh, Shabeer (Captain), Tinson, Cleatus, Byju, Ebin Rose, Tomy, Usman, Abdul Hameed
Substitutes: Joby Joseph, Fatheen, Dinraj, Diljith, Prashanth, Sugun Kumar, Deepu
Coach: Rajeev Kumar M
Manager: Hari Krishnan S
Chandni FC: Starting Eleven: Sakeer Hussain PP (GK, Captain), Hashim Malik, Shajahan PK, Hashim PP, Shamil KV, Yahya NV, Rajesh Thomas, Muhammed Aslam N, Salavuddin CK, Zubair KP, Joseph Perera
Substitutes: Jaffar C, Sujithran MK, Sajith M, Rajesh Kumar MA, Farhad K, Muhammed Jamshad, Muhammed Helmi
Coach: Sethumadhavan KP
Manager: Premnath Philip
Titanium Trivandrum 2 - 1 Chandni FC Calicut
Ebin Rose (114) Joseph Perera (24)
Shabeer (90)
Kevin Kishore for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Monday 30 November 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.
Comments · 1
lucky Titanium