IMAGIO VS TANGERINE

Imagio’s star strikers made a short-stopped mark in Friday morning’s match against Tangerine. In just under five minutes Imagio had involved themselves in a full-fledged attack against Tangerine but the ball seemed to have a mind of it’s own, drawing back against the goal or shaving the net. But it did not seem to favor Tangerine either, with captain Suhail’s trying strikes receiving just applause, not goals. But seven minutes into the first half Imran Lawati came up on the left with the ball and side-stepped Suhail to score Imagio’s first goal. Imagio captain Ashku did his part to thwart Rasul Chatoo’s spirited run on the left wing when a corner came his way from Shafqat via Suhail. Lawati came back in the second half from the same position he had in the first and his shot shook Tangerine’s goal and he brought the score up. Encouraged, he returned hopeful right away but this time the bar had got the better of his shot.

ZAGY VS UNIVERSAL

While Universal began their match with a unified huddle, Zagy appeared to cheer only Qassim Hemraj, Zaki Yusufali and captain Muhamed Manji in the front. It looked to be more than just a friendly gesture when the lead was theirs for the taking as a pass from Qassim Hemraj on the right, supplied by the captain in center was blasted in by Zaki Yusufali from center front early in the game. Having does his part Manji came out as Universal took a penalty which went wide and was replaced by Sajjad Karim, who played a flexible game with Shen in the second half, spurred on by the captain who did little to preserve his voice as it overshadowed all others, filled with direction for the players. But Zagy’s happiness came to a rude halt when talented midfield Ali Damji came up to center to assist Salman Ibraheem who provided Ali with the goal-making pass. Ali sent the ball in to the top right corner and Universal had finally caught on.

DYNAMIC VS EASTPAC

The referee set the tone of the match even before it started with some words to both teams, all in good fun. Early on Dynamic found their play restricted by Eastpac in all positions with captain Irfan Damji curbing Maza’s game, but the latter was still able to function as a passer and one such contribution to Mustafa Rashid sporting new shoes was converted into a lead for his team. But as they had done countless times before, all the duo of Maisam Rattansi and Sadiq Jetha had to do was play a 1-2 passing game with each other in Eastpac’s response which drew the score. An unexpected injury to Maza brought Dynamic’s tactics back into usage with Adil Haji back-passing a taken free-kick to him squarely in the goal.

AFRO VS EASTERN FREIGHT

Afro bested out Eastern Freight in their fourth and final match against each other with heavy credit going to striker Arif Somji who spearheaded the Afro effort. An unbelieving Afro struggled to retain possession until late in the first half - a good example being a Saleh free to juggle the ball for nearly thirty seconds on his own - when Arif unlocked the gateway of scoring by pressuring Eastern’s Maisam Asgher to score an own goal. After this the game rotated in Afro’s half with organized play differentiating the two teams, and they could only see opportunity with Arif being used as a decoy for Husain Walji who scored the second goal from left. After this both switched roles and it was Arif’s turn to score. Saleh Hashim brought Eastern back into the game with two goals as Husain Jagani came in but Arif secured Afro’s lead after sidestepping the keeper on the right, leaving the ball to roll in the goal unattended, and Husain Walji ensured Afro’s fourth point shortly after.

ZAGY VS UNIVERSAL

Having provided the goal-scoring assist in the previous match, Qassim Hemraj found himself a constantly marked man with Zagy receiving many free kicks on his behalf. Having being brought down three times in the first five minutes Qassim looked to respond to this unfair markup. Effort was put in for Zagy’s first win until Akeel dodged his way on the right and chipped the ball into the goal, which made Zagy fight back even harder in a most unusual way. The lumbering Shen looked weightless as he became playmaker past Universal’s Salman Ibraheem – a role which is usually reserved for Salman - creating optimistic chances for Qassim that were tried. But Akeel only had to repeat the first action done and Universal were two up. The third Universal goal proved to be a bit more challenging but Akeel took it in his stride, and the game ended with a bonus point for Universal when captain Muhamed finally gave up hope and stopped calling.

EASTPAC VS DYNAMIC

With the same tactics being used in their present match against Dynamic, it was clear that Eastpac had - with ordinary strategy - stood to a most unordinary team in a bid to balance the odds, that was transformed into a interesting goalless draw that captured the crowd’s attention to the very end. Eastpac seemed to be more in control of the game’s pace in the first half as well-taken shots traveled to the Dynamic side with captain Irfan again pulling Maza’s game to the very end but roles switched quickly upon the commencing of the second. For sure, an award to the biggest runner in the match would go to Sadiq Jetha who did everything he could to take Eastpac’s lead. Dynamic found themselves in tension as the Eastpac goal lay hard to reach behind the skillful hands of goal keeper Muju and well-defended against the shots of Imran Karim and Adil Haji.