The clash between Colombo Football Club (CFC) and Up-Country Lions Sports Club will be the key fixture in the Pre-League soccer tournament at the Sugathadasa Stadium today. The match will commence at 8.00 p.m. Red Star Sports Club will take on Defenders Sports Club at 5.00 p.m.
With the support of nine newly players from local clubs, UpCountry Lions from Nawalapitiya has the edge over their rival’s CFC. National skipper and goalkeeper Sujan Perera, who was playing for Maldives for quite some time, withdrew from his Maldivian team, the Club Eagles, to sign up with them. He will lead them in this pre-league, followed by the inaugural ‘Super League’ tournament scheduled to begin from mid-April.
Sujan’s team comprises Kavindu Ishan, M.M.M. Mushtaq, Mohamed Shifan, Khalid Azmil, Pathum Vimukthi, Mohamed Muzni and M. Nitharshan, making a strong composition with some national pool players and marquee player. The other feature of this side is the inclusion of the German-born and National poolist Wasim Razik. They will also have the services of the three Ghanian national players John Evans, Gyabaah Simons, and Elijah Aryee.
With a 13-year history in this game, UpCountry Lions are yet to win a major tournament. They are focused on this tournament, which is a prelude to the main tournament in April. They commenced practices almost 75 days ago, after being under a Bio-Bubble environment before. They are under the watchful eyes of head coach Mohamed Raheem and his assistant Kosala Navaratne. Mohamed Azwar is the goalkeeper coach.
CFC will rely on the same team with some positional changes, which defeated Blue Eagles 2-0 last week. They will be led by Ivory Coast player Momas Yato, who plays as a midfielder. Their starting up line will consist of Charitha Ratnayake, Zarwan Johar, Chalana Chameera, Chamud Dilshan, and Shabeer Rizunya who are all in the National pool.
“We are in the process of experimenting, by shuffling players in several positions during this phase of the tournament before we play in the main tournament in April. We possess a well-balanced side that is maturing into a formidable outfit with every match. Our target is to gear up for that main tournament irrespective of the results in these games,” said CFC coach Hassan Roomy.
Meanwhile, in the other game at 5.00 p.m., Red Star Sports Club will confront Defenders Sports Club. Red Star lost 2-0 to their town mates Blue Star in their curtain-raiser. According to their team coaching staff, they had very limited training before the commencement of this tournament due to the isolation period in their area with the second wave of COVID-19.
