Kerala State senior football championship | Nine-man Thiruvananthapuram downs Malappuram in tiebreaker, enters final

Rain-soaked football semifinal sees Thiruvananthapuram defeat Malappuram 4-3 in tiebreaker, advancing to the final against Kottayam.

This was an evening when the ball frequently failed to obey players’ commands.

The second semifinal of the 60th Kerala State senior inter-district football championship, between Thiruvananthapuram and Malappuram, was played under heavy rain at the Municipal Stadium here on Sunday and it was a big struggle for players for a major part.

Passes suddenly dropped dead often or lost pace and players kept slipping and falling regularly which brought the medical team into the ground every five minutes in the second half. In the end, a nine-man Thiruvananthapuram defeated a 10-man Malappuram 4-3 via the tiebreaker and entered the final. The teams were goalless at the end of the regular period.

Thiruvananthapuram will play Kottayam, which upset defending champion Thrissur 2-0 on Saturday, in Monday’s final.

Thiruvananthapuram lost defender S.J. Shane in the 48th minute with a second yellow card and another defender S. Shinu in the 65th also with his second yellow while Malappuram defender M. Safwan was given the marching orders in the 67th (second yellow).

But the rain, which left huge puddles of water in many places on the ground, turned out to be a great leveller with players unable to control the slippery ball and with passes often going to the wrong man. In the end, no goals were scored and the match went to the tiebreaker.

“Everything seemed to go against us. We lost two boys with red cards but we never gave up,” Sanal Kumar, the Thiruvananthapuram coach, told The Hindu after the match.