Rudra FA scraped past Castle Boys 6-4 via the penalty shootout tie-breaker in a tense and absorbing First Division second semi-final of the Rustomjee-MDFA League 2019-2020 and played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra.
A Castle Boys player (left) and Rudra FA player vie for the ball during their semi-final match of the Rustomjee-MDFA League 2019-20 .
The match which witnessed a grim battle for supremacy finished in a 1-1 draw at the end of regulation 40-minute first half.
Rudra FA opened the scoring with striker Surya Naiker finding the net before Castle Boys came fighting back and Brandon D’Mello netted the equalizer take the match to the tie-breaker.
In the ensuing penalty shootout duel, Rudra FA players showed better nerves and proved better marksmen converting from all their five attempts, while Castle Boys failed to convert their fifth kick and ended on the losing side.
Rudra FA successfully converted through Kuldeep Masih, Salim Shaikh, Siddharth Kamble, Shayan Zaq and Mohammed Baig, while succeeded in scoring through Grenville Murzello, Calvin Pereira, Mohit Gatty and Ritesh Poojary. Rohan Yadav was unable to score from the last attempt.
Results – First Div (semi-finals): Rudra FA 6 (Surya Naiker, Kuldeep Masih, Salim Shaikh, Siddharth Kamble, Shayan Zaq, Mohammed Baig) beat Castle Boys 5 (Brandon D’Mello, Grenville Murzello, Calvin Pereira, Mohit Gatty, Ritesh Poojary).