Austin Fighters
Austin Cougars
Austin Cougars win with a nail biting finish!
The second day of the tournament started with the classic encounter between Austin Fighters and Austin Cougars. Both teams were heavily dependent on their strong defense lineups and the score line suggests the same as Cougars managed to defeat Fighters by a solitary goal that came through a spot-kick.
The first half was full of actions as the Cougars started to put pressure on the Fighters’ defense line from the very beginning. Cougars mid-field was controlled by Austin’s veteran Polin, their trump card Mridul, and fast mover Mukit. On the other side, Fighters started without their center defender, Ali, which created lots of open spaces for them. However, Fighters managed to defend some of the easy chances that Cougars created through Mridul and veteran Mir, thanks to the defense line of Fighters led by Sakif, Sunny, and Mukim. Because of the absence of Ali, Fighters were also moving their mid-field and offense players throughout the first half to try out different combinations. During this time, Cougars were successful to create some good chances. In one of them, Fighters’ goalkeeper, Rubayat saved a long shot from Mridul, who fired it from just outside the D-box.
Throughout the game, Cougar’s defense line played like a wall led by Oli, Sanjay, Sushan, and Bulbul (Imamul) that the Fighter’s offense line could not penetrate much. Fighters got one of their best chances when Captain Sunny got a deflected ball within the D-box but could not trouble Cougar’s goalkeeper, Munir, arguably the best in town. While both defense lines continued to impress by neutralizing the opponent attackers, the break-through came when Fighter’s defender Mukim accidentally made a handball inside the D-box to tackle Captain Polin’s kick. The referee decided to give a penalty even though Fighters were arguing that it was unintentional. Cougar’s main weapon, Mridul made no mistake to put the ball on the net from the spot-kick. Cougars went ahead right at the end of the first half.
The second half started with more attacking mindset from the Fighters. Being down by one goal, they moved their midfielders up to put more pressure on the Cougar’s defense. Fighters put up a better show during this time through their star player, Shams, captain Sunny, and young star Sabiq. The offense also started to attack more through Sid, Sharaf, and Utsha. But Cougar’s solid defense line tackled them well and kept the D-box well-guarded. Their primary defender, Oli, tried a few long shots to the Fighters defensive half to give passes to Mir, Zia, and Mridul through counter attacks, but they could not change the score line.
With this result, the Group B became more open as all the teams still have hopes to reach the Semifinal. The third day of the tournament will be extremely critical as all the four teams from this group will play all out to get through. Stay tuned to get those actions.