Austin Cougars
Austin Mighty BDs
Mighty BDs display their strength
Austin Mighty BDs 4
The stage for the first semifinal was set for the battle between the attacking third of Austin Mighty BDs and the strongest defense of tournament, Austin Cougars. Veteran Captain Polin and experienced Manager Nipu were determined to defend against the fierce looking attacking third of Mighty BDs. Despite injuries, Captain Sami decided to dedicate himself for the team and inspire the team from the pitch, rather than from the sidelines. It was proven from the get-go that Sami’s presence on the pitch makes a huge difference for his team.
The game started at a tempo, everyone anticipated. Mighty BDs had organized a very attacking formation with Riyan, Munna and Sami up front just above the most dynamic midfield of the tournament, Mortuza, Shouvik, and Bahar. Zahedul Khan placed himself at the defensive midfield position along with Tamim. Faisal Rashid led the defensive line with substitute Nuruzzaman from Gladiators along with energetic Reazul and Zahid Hasan. With this fierce looking team, Mighty BDs dared to put rookie goalkeeper, Tank under the goalpost. On the other hand, Austin Cougars had their as usual defensive line led by Oli along with Bulbul, Susan, Sanjoy, and Hillal. They had deployed Adit Hasan to cage Riyan 100% of the time. Captain Polin and superstar Mridul were set to play in the midfield pushing Veteran Mir and Zia up front in the forward line. The strategy from Cougars was definitely to play long balls from Oli through to Mridul, Polin, and Zia. Cougars had tournament’s best goalkeeper, Munir Faisal Chowdhury under the post who conceded only one goal before the semi-final.
Austin Mighty BDs didn’t take much time to take over the midfield as they always do. Mortuza Shouvik, Bahar, and Zahedul Khan kept on pressing and produced excellent balls for Riyan and Sami. While Riyan was playing his usual self, Sami decided to be the lone striker up front due to his injury, instead of running all over the field. Cougars were defending very well as they always do with Bulbul defusing the attacks even before they build up. However, Sami proved very quickly, even being half-fit, he can destroy a strong defense at will. Sami did a deadly backheel to Riyan within Cougar’s D-box; none of the Cougars defenders could read the backheel and Riyan did not mistake sending the ball back of the net, beating goalkeeper, Munir Faisal.
Conceding a goal, Cougars attempted to counter back. Mridul and Polin produced couple of through balls to veteran Mir; however, Mir was outpaced by the speedy defense of Reazul and Zahid Hasan. It could have been a different story five-ten years back! The first half ended at 1-0 for Mighty BDs.
In the second half, Cougars started building up few good attacks through Polin, Mridul and Zia through long balls from Oli. From one of attacks, Zia found himself in an open position, but he took too much time and could not test the rookie goalie, Tank! A great opportunity was missed. As Cougars started pressing up, it created a lot of spaces which was ideal for Mighty BDs. Masum Billah, the charismatic and stylist midfielder, dribbled past couple of Cougars’ defenders, and fed a deadly pass to Sami. With deflection from Munna, Sami made no mistake scoring from that close of a range, 2-0 for Austin Mighty BDs! This second goal devastated the Cougars, and understandably they started playing all out. They soon created an opportunity through Mridul’s pass to Captain Polin who was in one-to-one position with the rookie keeper, Tank. It was not clear why Captain Polin didn’t attempt the shot himself; felt like he was looking for someone to pass the ball onto. On another occasion, Zia again found himself in an open position within Mighty BD’s D-box but wasn’t able to capitalize that opportunity.