A composed ACC B scotched the semifinal dreams of an aggressive Snack Restaurant Friends Jeddah by sharing six goals in a fast and furious game and booked its berth in the last four in A Division of the SIFF-Rabea Tea Champions League at the Hilal Sham Stadium near Khalid Bin Waleed Street here. In other matches, Town Team Strikers rallied to draw with Jeddah FC 1-1 in B Division and Friday Friends FC knocked out Soccer Freaks with a 2-0 verdict in C Division. The league championship, organized by Saudi Indian Football Forum, is mainly sponsored by Rabea Tea and supported by Al-Abeer Medical Group, Jeddah National Hospital, TSS Advertising, Fathima Food Stuff, Gamon Group, Kathir Rice, Al-Ryan Polyclinic and Sharafiya Trading. Friends Jeddah, which needed to win the match by 3 goals to earn a ticket to semis, showed great urgency and went all out from the kickoff, but without direction. And to make matters worse, its Shameel conceded an own goal. ACC, whose accent was on defense from the beginning, now tried to slow down the game. But Friends maintained the tempo through Raneesh and Fateen who created panic in ACC penalty area. After Abdul Jaleel missed a nice chance created by Emad, he atoned for the mistake by connecting a beautiful pass by Waleed Naser. However, just before the break Raneesh struck powerfully from outside the box to reduce the lead to 1-2. On resumption, it was Friends all the way for a while as Manaf leveled off an assist from Raneesh and took the lead in the next minute through Haris Nani, again fed by Raneesh. It seemed as if Friends would run away with the game. But the experienced ACC had other ideas as Jaffer Ali, Waleed and Hyder were in fine form. Soon it was all over for Friends as Emad, receiving a pass from Waleed, dribbled past two defenders and as he charged into the box a rival defender tackled him roughly. Jafer Ali converted the penalty to make it 3-3. Raneesh was adjudged the Player of the Match. In the B Division match, Town Team Strikers enjoyed the edge over Jeddah FC. Ameer Madathil and Faisal were always threatening Jeddah FC. But quite against the run of play Jeddah FC's Shihabudhin scored from a stunning free-kick by Mohammed Jafer. As the celebrations just subsided Ahmed Kutty Tayyil equalized for Town Team Strikers. Shahid Ali Karangadan was named the Player of the Match. Soccer Freakz bowed out of the tournament after losing to Friends Friday FC 2-0 in a C Division match. Muhammed Junaid and Adil Mulla scored for Friends Friday FC, which dominated the game, mainly through Yakoob and Yassir. Yakoob was selected as the Player of the Match. Friday's matches (from 8:00 p.m.): Youth India FC vs. FC Quwaiza (C Division); Nirapara BCC FC vs. Al-Noor Medical Center Friends Junior Jeddah (A Division); Nadec Blue Star B vs. TSS Advertising Real Kerala FC (A Division).
