Viva Kerala washeld to a 1-all draw by minnows Titanium XI. The crowd will be dissapointed that Viva failed to grab three points in its first outing of the 2nd Division I-League.

The young boys, arguably in awe of the huge crowd present at Maharaja's College Ground, had the upper hand during the first minutes of the matc,h but then slightly lost overall possesion to the team from Trivandrum. 

It became evident that the young players were overwhelmed by their own nerves and thus put up a rather dismal show in the first half. The normally dependable defender Noushad was so off-colour that he had to be replaced.

However, in the first half itself, Viva's Nigerian Bello Rasaq had a golden chance to score the lead through a penalty, but he was denied by the titanium custodian.

 

One minute into the first half, D. Ebin Rose of Titanium cracked a powerful shot which took a deflection off Rajesh's back and went into the net. After conceding the goal, Viva had to open up and created some more chances which could not be converted. Coach Sreedharan ordered Bello to move upfront during the last ten minutes in order to go all out. The Nigerian then dribbled past two defenders and layed the ball to Manoharan who in turned served the ball to M.P. Sakeer. The young boy from Malappuram made no mistake and scored the equaliser. 

Now, Viva wanted to get the whole three points, but Baba Tunde muffed up the chances that came his way.

 

Overall, it was a rather disappointing performance and players like Saleel and Baba Tunde failed miserably. One can only hope for a more confident game on 9th when the team takes on Chandni FC: 

As coach Sreedharan put it: "We have no alternatives now. Only win, win, win...!"

 

Viva: Shahinlal - Sajesh, Noushad (Shihab), Rasaq, Sathish - Siraj, Lalu, Sakeer, Saleel (Rahul) - Baba Tunde, Shibin (Manoharan). 

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