Trio on the track to glory
Date: 12 September 2006 | Uploaded: 8:00 PM
 |
|
| (L-R) Suzeynu, Eric and Goffa: Who will celebrate on Tuesday |
|
Dhiraagu Dhivehi league is approaching its climax with New Radiant, Victory and Valencia in the top front. Two games remaining for each team, the trio are the contenders of the tournament.
But the question arise at the moment is who will seal the glory? Victory the very first winner of the tournament and New Radiant, who are yet to touch the shield, are the close contenders. While Valencia, the four times winner, has a narrow chance. In other words, they don’t have any magic in their hands to turn the things into their side and they have to depend very much on the results of the remaining games.
The last game of the tournament falls coincidently between New Radiant and Victory and that could be the decider. If both teams reach at that point winning their next game, the last game would be interesting, in fact very interesting.
Big task ahead of Valencia is not only winning the two games but beating the opponents with huge margin makes things worse for them. They are 13 goals behind Victory, so simply winning is not enough and scoring more than a dozen in their next two matches, which is against Guraidhoo and IFC, needs a miracle to happen.
But a narrow win could also give them satisfaction, if both New Radiant and Victory failed to win their two games and that’s again unlikely to happen as one of New Radiant and Victory’s encounters is facing themselves.
New Radiant, who is on top at the moment, is going to face IFC and Victory, and none of these opponents is a minnow. New Radiant met IFC twice in this season so far, first during Dhivehi League Qualification zone 9 and then in Dhivehi League first round. The blues survived in both attempts; first 1-0 in qualification then 5-4 in round one. That means they will carry a 100% record against IFC in this season when they face one of their crucial encounters of this season on next Friday (15th September).
Next opponent isn’t going to be easy. So far in this season the most entertaining matches belong to the fixtures of these two sides. New Radiant and Victory face each other 6 times and out of that blues conquered the glory thrice, Victory twice and one ended in draws.
It started from season opening match; Victory won by 2-0 then in cup winners cup group stage New Radiant won by 3-1. Next comes FA Cup semi final, New Radiant won by 3-1. Then comes Cup Winners Cup Final, it was 2-2 at the end of extra time and Victory sealed the titled from the spot. New Radiant won Dhivehi League round one match by 1-0 where as Dhivehi League Qualification ended as 0-0. This gives some idea about the strength of these two sides and for no doubt they are very competitive in this season.
Victory’s next opponent is Maziya and they both faced each other in two occasions. Victory stunned them by 6-1 in Dhivehi League Qualification and 3-0 in Dhivehi League round one.
So, the road to glory is still open to the trio (New Radiant, Victory and Valencia) and for sure one of them will celebrate the success on 19th September. In any case, if that happens to be New Radiant, the runners up will leave the field with a light smile on the face and celebrating their qualification to AFC Cup 2007 from deep inside.
....................................................................................................................
Send your comments about this article
|
|
