25/12/1997
SELANGOR ... 1 KEDAH ... 0
K. LUMPUR ... 2 PERAK ... 1
DEFENDING champions Selangor and Kuala Lumpur had to wait for golden goals
to qualify for the final of the National Under-18 soccer championship at
the Police Depot ground yesterday.
Selangor beat Kedah 1-0 while Kuala Lumpur edged Perak 2-1 to set up the
final showdown on Saturday.
Selangor's performance was nothing to shout about yesterday. In fact,
they were far from the side that showed committment in the preliminary
round. The team that saw action yesterday was more interested in
challenging the referee's decisions.
Selangor's Mohamed Helmi and Shah Jehan were flashed the yellow cards
within 20 minutes of play and in the 72nd minute referee Mohamed
Subkhiddin gave the marching orders to Helmi for holding up play.
On the Kedah side, things were no better. Rafiz Abu Bakar, who attended
a month-long stint in Germany was in the shadows.
They had only one good look at Selangor's goal when Akmal Rizal's shot
was deflected over the bar by Mohamed Fami.
Selangor only got their act together in extra time.
Fareed Shah's curling shot from the left was neatly headed in by
Kamaruzaman Yub.
In the other semifinals, defender C. Vijayandran stole the limelight
when he scored in extra-time to take Kuala Lumpur into the final.
Perak, who adopted a defensive approach in the early part of the game,
shocked Kuala Lumpur when Indra Putra sent in a powerful shot past
goalkeeper Affendy Osman in the 68th minute.
Kuala Lumpur got the equaliser through Mohamed Shafie in the 84th
minute.
However, in extra time, Perak defender R. Nantha Kumar brought down
Mohamed Farid in the penalty box. Nantha was shown the red card while KL
received a penalty.
Farid' weak attempt was palmed away by goalkeeper Mohamed Azlan.
However in the 113th minute, Vijayandran 25-metre attempt left Azlan
standing helpless.
(END)
