SSAC Royals United 1-0 NMSA

SSAC Royals United won their second match of the season against Navi Mumbai Sports Association (NMSA) convincingly on sunday (13th Feb'11).

SSAC Royals were boosted by the presence of Ian Fialho upfront, who was not present for the first match. Rest of the starting line up was more or less the same as last time, only change was Mangesh played in place of Akash Rajput as the left half and Ankit Shetty was playing as a stopper in place of Mr. Sanoj Koran.

SSAC Royals dominated the game from the first whistle. Team was controlling the game but were loosing possession at times, due to lack of concentration and co-ordination.

NMSA took their chances on our goal, but were unable to convert anything. This was because of Mr. Ramesh Chaudhari Sir, who marshalled the defense with ease.

SSAC midfield controlled the game pretty well. Rakesh Menon and Nitin Jaurkar played well, but the switching of play was lacking during the game. Lack of practise sessios was also responsible for the same.

Rakesh took a nice run from the center easing past two opponents and pulled towards the right corner of NMSA half. He then put in a cross right across the face of the goal, Ian missed on the volley, but Nitin was following him up and scored the goal.

Ian Fialho was not in his best during the game as it was his first game of the season. He missed a lot of oppurtunities but was also tracked closely by the NMSA defenders.

During the first half, one more oppurtunity was created from the left side of the field by Mangesh. Nitin recieved the ball in a scoring position, but instead of scoring he passed the ball to Ian, who was eventually in an offside position and the second goal was ruled out.

First half, SSAC Royals lead NMSA 1-0.

After a chat with Shanti Sir, the team entered into the second half with a slender lead of one goal. It was critical to score another one asap. Just after 5 mins, Mahendra was replaced by Sanoj in the mid-field. Nitin met with a nasty tackle during the second half and was replaced by Akash Rajput.

Akash and Mangesh swapped positions in the mid-field. Second half was also controlled majorly by SSAC Royals. But they were unable to get more goals. Ian missed out on couple of chances during the second half also.

Prashant and Ricky also combined well with the midfield to create chances for strikers, but these chances were not converted.

Full time whistle, SSAC Royals 1-0 NMSA.

Overall the win was good, but the winning margin could have been better.

Shanti Sir, has taken note of all these points and would take this up during the practise sessions over the week.

SSAC Royals United have two wins out of two matches, but there are many aspects on which the team has to concentrate and work hard upon. Since the upcoming fixtures will be tough.

Details about the upcoming fixtures will be uploaded asap.