Sri Lanka Football Teams leave for Kathmandu Friday

By Susil Premalal

The Sri Lanka Football Men’s and Women’s teams will leave for Kathmandu, Friday to take part in the 13th South Asian Games (SAG) Football Tournament.

The tournament will be from December 1 to 10 and is an Under-23 competition. Six countries are taking part in the event. Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan make up Group ‘A’ while Group ‘B’ consists of Sri Lanka, the Maldives and India.

Sri Lanka’s first match will be on December 4 against the Maldives Islands. The second match on December 8 against India.

The Semi-finals will be on December 6 and Third-place play-off and Final on December 10.

The Sri Lanka Men’s team is being captained by Mohammed Fazal. There are three senior players in the team including the captain. The others are Duckson Puslas and Sujan Perera.

The Sri Lanka team has been training for one and a half years under National Coach Rumy Packeerali. The Football Federation of Sri Lanka has given a target to the coach to bring home a Gold Medal for the country.

In the history of the SAG, Sri Lanka is yet to win the Gold medal in football but in 1995 at the SAFF Gold Cup, Sri Lanka overcame India to become champions.

The SAG Women’s Football Tournament will commence on December 3 and will conclude on December 10.

The Sri Lanka Men’s squad - Mohammed Fazal (Capt.), Sujan Perera, Mohamadu Ishan, Manaram Perera, Duckson Puslas, Jude Supun, Suranga Dilhara,Vimukthi Madumal, Mohammed Shaheel, Mohammed Aakib, Mohammed Mushtaq, Niresh Sunderaraj, Dilip Suraj Pieris, Naveen Jude, Lakshan Dananjaya, Chamod Dilhan, Mohammed Aman, Nuan Gimhana, Joy Nithusan and Alfred Thanesh.

Officials – Rumy Packeerali (Head Coach), Sampath Buddhika Bandara (GK Trainer), Abdul Barsith (Physio), Sunil Seneweera (Manager)