Viva Kerala U-19 and Churchill Brothers U-19 ended up with a 1-1 draw in the first match of the preliminaries of Junior I-League as Brian Mascheranas canceled out Viva Kerala's lead in the 53rd minute.
Image not recoveredSreejith (Thrissur) scored the goal from the midfield for Viva Kerala in the 10th minute and the team looked strong throughout the match despite the fact that the team members has spend very less time together. But Churchill Brothers players have been playing together for months and were the champions of a local U-9 tournament held here at Goa.
Churchill equalized through Brian Mascheranas in the 53rd minute and restricted Viva from scoring all three points from their first outing. Viva Kerala's two stopper backs - Sadique Ali (Thiroor) and Serin Shyam (Kothamangalam) - had a good day at the defense line holding onto Churchill Brothers attacks for the entire 90th minute.
Viva played a 4-5-1 with TP Jayan (Chalakudi) at the front. Mohammed Suhail AK (Kozhikode) also preformed brilliantly in the attacking midfield role.
In the opening match of the tournament at Goa, Sporting Club de Goa defeated Dempo SC 3-0 yesterday. In another match today at Phagwara, Mahindra United and Air India played almost a similar match as the Viva Kerala - Churchill Brothers. Mahindra took lead in the 8th minute through Shilton, but Sumit equalized in the 5oth.
Viva Kerala Starting Eleven: Abdul Salam (Goal Keeper, Captain) - Sadique Ali, Shabab Ali, Serin Shyam, P Mithun Mohan - M Vipin, Sreejith, ES Sudhil, Prajeesh Gowardhanan, AK Muhammed Suhail - TP Jayan
Final Score: Churchill Brothers U19 1-1 Viva Kerala U19
Goals: Brian MAscheranas (53') - Sreejith (10')
Photo Courtesy: VivaKerala.Net
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Saturday 8 May 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.