Cathedral and John Connon (Fort) clinched their maiden boys U-16 Division-I title in the 82nd Mumbai School Sports Association inter-school football tournament with a dominant 3-1 win over Smt RSB Arya Vidya Mandir (Juhu) at the Wings Sports Centre, Bandra, on Monday.
Anaai D’Souza of Cathedral struck first in the 16th minute, latching onto a defence-splitting pass and taking a deft first touch before unleashing a low, angled shot into the far-left corner.
Zahan doubles the lead
Five minutes later, Cathedral doubled the lead through Zahan Mistry, who timed his run perfectly to meet an accurate pass just ahead of the AVM centre-backs and slotted the ball into an empty net.
The pressure on AVM intensified and by the 24th minute, Cathedral had effectively sealed the contest. A swift counter-attack caught AVM’s defence off-guard, with Veer Kedia arriving unmarked at the back post to tap in a precise cross from the right flank, making it 3-0.
After the break, AVM’s Prithviraj Tanpure produced a fine individual effort, weaving past two defenders before finishing low to reduce the deficit.
It was a special occasion for Parel resident Anaai, who will soon be leaving to join the AIFF FIFA Talent Academy in Bhubaneswar where he will be for the next few years. He is the only player from Maharashtra to be selected for this, and his grateful teammates gave him a fitting send-off with a guard of honour.
‘A bad day for us’
AVM coach Desmond D’Souza, said, “It was a bad day for us, we were simply unable to mark Cathedral’s forwardline. All our plans failed. It was not a bad performance from my team, it’s just that the opposition was much better. Had we scored in the first half, the game might have then played out differently.”
Cathedral coach Daryl Samuel was happy to win the title in his first season with this team. “It’s difficult to monitor the playing styles of so many different schools. I just kept things simple,” he said.