Bosco win U-8 school football title

Don Bosco (Matunga) won the Mumbai Schools Sports Association (MSSA)-Mumbai Indians (MI) U-8 football title after defeating arch-rivals St Stanislaus (Bandra) 4-3 via tie-breaker at Azad Maidan yesterday

The result had to be decided through penalty shootout after both teams were tied 0-0 at the final whistle. The winners meanwhile had their fair share of drama in the shootout with coach Leslie Machado having to replace regular goalkeeper Shubek Sidhu with Arzaan Panthaky as Shubek wasn’t feeling too confident.u00a0

Bosco captain Harsh Palande then took over from Arzaan between the posts after Arzaan could not keep out efforts from Stanislaus’ Shayne D’Costa and Myron Pesso.

Don Bosco players pose with the U-8 trophy after their win over St. Stanislaus in the final at Azad Maidan yesterday. Pic/Atul Kamble

Harsh, who was later given the ‘Best Player Award’, saved two spot-kicks from Stanislaus’ Ethan Falcon and Aaron D’Costa.

For Bosco, Vandan Nandoskar, Harsh and Keagan Fernandes were on target. However, Stanislaus’ Jaffer Mansoor pulled his team back into the contest with his spot-kick. Bosco were then handed their second title in two years after their goalkeeper Shubek overcame his inhibitions to score the decisive goal.

Harsh, who played the final with an injured left hand, was glad to have guided his team to victory. “During the semi-final, I fell after being pushed by two players of The Cathedral & John Connon and got a blood clot on my left hand. I was feeling the pain but I didn’t want to miss the final,” said the eight-year-old.

Meanwhile, St Mary’s ICSE (Mazagaon) beat The Cathedral and John Connon (Fort) 1-0 in the third place play-off.

In the boys U-10 Division II final, St Mary’s SSC (Mazagaon) registered a 4-1 win over Hiranandani Foundation (Powai) while Vibgyor High (Goregaon) handed a 3-1 defeat to AVM (Juhu) in the third place play-off. Shane Aranha was adjudged the best player in the boys U-10 catogory. u00a0

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