NSL Football: Our Own English School show class

Jose Maria Santos 00:24 08/11/2016
Holding their own: OOES (red) kept their cool to defeat Al Ain Juniors Indian.

In their first match, the U14 side of Our Own defeated Al Saad Indian School 7-0. Man-of-the match Saya Mersel scored a hat-trick while Mohammed Raiyan settled for a brace and Zameel Mohammed and Ajya Jayaprakash scored one goal each.

“We were moving the ball around with ease and it was no surprise that we scored a big win against Al Saad,” Mersel told Sport360.

“We imposed ourselves in the first half and they were totally astounded. So, in the second half we just played it easy to reserve our energy for the next match.”

Without breaking a sweat, Our Own made another strong statement in their next game, keeping another clean sheet with a 5-0 trashing of Global English School.

Mersel made another impressive performance for his team, scoring a brace and dishing out one assist, while Juwad Mohammad and Zameel Mohammed added two and one goals respectively.

“The second match was harder than the previous one. Although we had and early lead, Global English did not give up and fought on until full time,” the ace striker from Our Own said as their manager, Kishor Ponnanna, savoured the sight of his team winning back-to-back matches and hauling a total of 12 goals.

“I never expected our boys to play this well,” Ponnanna said. “We only had two weeks of team practice but our boys really stepped up on the pitch and showed their skills.”

Al Ain Academy also made a strong statement in the other U14 match with an emphatic 8-0 win over Al Saad Indian School.

Mohammed Saif, who was declared man of the match, scored half of his team’s total goals while midfielder Evan Titus scored a brace and cousins Ali Karim and Yousef Karim netted one goal each.

Al Ain Academy manager Johnny Dunn said: “Without a doubt it was a superb and very convincing win. We kept a clean sheet because of our solid start and strong finish.”

“It was a total team effort, we had good communication on the pitch for a smooth ball movement. Saif led the team and our midfielders dominated the centre,” Dunn said.

The U16 side of Our Own English School set the tone of the day with a 4-0 victory over Al Ain Juniors English. Mahmoud Khalil was the star of the game with a goal and three assists while Ali Alaa added a brace and Leith Hadi also scored.

“We distributed the ball well and created a lot of space,” Khalil said.

“Our opponents (Al Ain Juniors English) had difficulty keeping up with our speed and we limited their possession with our defence.”

Our Own English School, however, had a tougher time in their next U16 match against Global English School. Both sides they did not give an inch and the game ended in a goalless draw.

“The first half we did not do enough to create opportunities and the same thing happened in the second half. The 0-0 scoreline was frustrating so we made some adjustments in our third and final game of the day,” Khalil said.

After getting a few minutes of rest, Our Own English School caught their second wind and finished with a 2-1 win over Al Ain

Juniors Indian.

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