Sonali keeps Our Lady in good Health!

The MSSA inter-school girls U-16 match between Apostolic Carmel, Bandra and Our Lady of Health Sahar at Azad Maidan yesterday was a closely contested affair with both teams fighting for a place in the next round. Our Lady of Health triumphed 1-0 thnaks to a freek-kick by Sonali Kher. Carmel 'keeper Ayesha Londe couldn't hold on to a straight forward free-kick from Kher and instead punched the ball into her own net.

OLH celebrated their first win in the competition even as another Apostolic defeat ufffd their second from two outings in the league ufffd further stressed on the school's dwindling football fortunesu00a0 thats aw them lose despite dominating the proceedings. Interestingly, Carmel were the runners-up in the 2008-09 season losing 0-1 to Bombay Scottish in the final. Then, they claimed they were given a raw deal by the referee, who ruled out the their late equaliser calling it a foul committed on the 'keeper. A year later, they failed in their bid to avenge that loss as they lost in the semi-final 0-2 to Canossa Convent, Andheri. And this year, the Carmelites have looked completely out of sorts with two defeats and two walkovers. With a game to go, they are still are in with a chance to proceed to the next round provided other teams in the group get fare badly.

Apostolic Carmel coach, Cosmos Vaz blamed the lack of seriousness among girls towards the sport as one of the key reasons for this downfall. "Apart from Steffi (Lewis), our captain Alisha (Shaikh) and a couple of others, no one else comes for practice regularly. Football is played by 11 players and not just two, three," fumed Vaz.
Meanwhile, his counter-part, Ramesh Bista was humming a different tune.u00a0 "Many of these girls are playing for the first time. They are keen to learn and can only get better," said Bista.