Barawa 4-0 Tamil Eelam - Hosts Barawa get off to a dream start

Barawa 4 – 0 Tamil Eelam
Location	Hayes Lane, Bromley, Kent BR2 9EF
Kickoff	31/05/2018 20:00

BARAWA  4-0  TAMIL EELAM
Paddy Power CONIFA 2018 World Football Cup Group A
Thursday 31 May 2018
Stephen McCartney reports from Hayes Lane

CONIFA World Football Cup hosts Barawa got off to a dream start by thrashing Tamil Eelam on the opening night at Hayes Lane in Bromley.

Adikarim Farah’s side sealed a comfortable 4-0 win to top Group A after the first round of matches, which saw Ellan Vannin cruise to a 4-1 win over Cascadia in the high-noon clash at Sutton United’s Gander Green Lane.

The opening ceremony brought all of the competing teams on to the pitch before the game flying their flags and tonight’s game saw some technical footballers displaying their talents.

Barawa opened the scoring courtesy of a goalkeeping mistake, which was drilled into an empty net by Solomon Sambou, who played just behind the striker.

Shaun Lucien slotted in the first of his two penalties before impressive right-winger Gianni Crichlow scored from a fluky cross to kill the game off just before half-time.

Lucien added a second penalty inside the final 10 minutes as English born referee Mark Clattenburg pointed to the spot and booked Tamil Eelam’s left-back for a last-man foul.

CONIFA insist the tournament is run by volunteers but they must improve off-the-pitch.

The team sheet that was distributed to everybody that asked for a copy, listed both squads with a “S” marked beside the players’ name if they started, but speculation went around that the shirt numbers on this team-sheet were incorrect and that the names and numbers listed on the CONIFA website were the players that turned out for Tamil Eelam tonight.

Therefore, this match report is going by the names listed on the team list online and not the team sheet distributed by CONIFA officials at the stadium.

The team sheet didn’t list the team’s names, who the match officials were or the team’s colours and when each team went through their four subs each no sub boards were used, making it feel like an amateur football competition instead of a World Football tournament.

Barawa started on the front foot as Ayuub Ali’s long ball out of defence was chased by striker Simon Noel, who capitalised on a defensive mistake but his weak shot was gathered by the keeper.

Tamil Eelam striker Nirunthan Sivananthan’s near post header from Mayooran Chelliah’s corner sailed through a crowd of players and past the far post from 10-yards.

Barawa took the lead with 16 minutes and 15 seconds on the clock, courtesy of a goalkeeping mistake from Umaesh Sundaralingam.

The Tamil Eelam keeper was on the right-hand side of his penalty area and his poor clearance went straight to Sambou, who took a touch before drilling his right-footed shot low into the back of the net from 25-yards.

Tamil Eelam squandered a glorious chance to equalise when Sivananthan shrugged off Ali on the right-hand side, raced forward to cut into the box but he lacked composure once inside the box and his shot rolled into the hands of Barawa keeper Calvin King.

The Tamil Eelam keeper spilt Lucien’s free-kick from the left-hand side but made amends when he blocked the follow-up from Barawa right-back Courtney Jamal Austin.

Tamil Eelam were desperately unlucky not to equalise in the 27^th minute when a sublime pass out of central defence by Prasanna Premendra put their right-winger Gvinthan Navaneethakrishnan through on goal and his right-footed chip from 15-yards sailed over the keeper and bounced down off the underside of the crossbar.

Barawa went up the other end to score their second goal with 30 minutes and 5 seconds on the clock.

Tamil Eelam right-back Mahy Nambiar dropped to his knees in despair after he was harshly penalised by referee Mark Clattenburg for fouling Lucien, who stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way with a right-footed penalty that nestled nicely into the bottom right-hand corner.

Barawa’s Sambou played a sublime inch-perfect through ball which was drilled first time by Chrichlow, which was pushed over the bar by the keeper at his near post, with both hands above his head.

However, Barawa scored a fluky killer third goal with 42 minutes and 31 seconds on the clock when talented Chrichlow scored.

Barawa captain Omar Sufi played the ball up to Aryan Tajbakhsh and the former Cray Wanderers now Crawley Town midfielder played the ball out to Chrichlow on the right and he floated over a cross which clipped the inside of the far post and went in.

Tamil Eelam produced a poor shot with the last kick of the first half but Navaneethakrishnan’s attempt rolled into King’s gloves as the ball trickled towards the bottom left-hand corner.

Chrichlow should have made it 4-0 inside the opening three minutes of the second half when he was released through on goal but dragged his shot past the far post.

Sivananthan was a threat in the air from corners and once again his header sailed across the keeper and past the far post after Panneerselvam delivered the ball in from the left.

Barawa keeper King pulled off a great diving save to his right to prevent Panushanth Kulenthiran powering home his header following Panneerselvam’s corner from the left in the 64^th minute. The ball trickled towards goal and was cleared towards safety by Sufi on the line.

Tajbakhsh and Chrichlow combined to set up a swept chance for substitute Shawuille Ismail at the far post but his shot flashed past the near post.

Tamil Eelam went with three men up front for the final 20 minutes with Navaneethakrishnan flashing a shot past the near post from 25-yards.

Barawa substitute Walid Mahamud Hirsi was put through on goal straight down the heart of the pitch and after a ricochet took the ball past the advancing keeper he was fouled by the last-man Jayabalakrishnan, who picked up a yellow card.

Lucien stepped up to place his right-footed penalty into the bottom right-hand corner to make it 4-0 with 34 minutes and 59 seconds on the clock.

Barawa substitute Ismail was put through on goal but dragged his shot wide but Tamil Eelam were well-beaten by this point and the second half was played more like an exhibition match.

For people to pay National League South (sixth-tier of English football) prices (£12) to watch, the product has to be better than this!  People were paying top prices to watch players who ply their trade much further down the food chain than the host club Bromley (Vanarama National League, the fifth-tier of English football) and some players were listed as “unattached” on the online squad list.

A World Football Cup competition needs to live up to its billing.

Barawa: Calvin King, Courtney Jamal Austin (Bagnama Keita 76), Tarik Kwon, Omar Sufi (Ridwan Hussein 85), Ayuub Ali, Zakaria Bachi, Shaun Lucien, Aryan Tajbakhsh, Simon Noel (Shaquille Ismail 54), Solomon Sambou, Gianni Chrichlow (Walid Mahamud Hirsi 70).
Subs: Jeylani Sufi, Wada Ahmidi, Said Tahir, Dahir Ali, Arale Mohamed, Hafed Al Droubi

Goals: Solomon Sambou 17, Shaun Lucien 31 (penalty), 80 (penalty), Gianni Crichlow 43

Tamil Eelam: Umaesh Sundaralingam, Mahy Nambiar, Piraburaj Jayabalakrishnan, Gonas Panneerselvam, Prasanna Premendra, Johnath Chandran (Kevin Nagendra 51), Prashanth Ragavan (Kasthuran Chelliah 58), Mayooran Chelliah (Janojan Pathmanathan 68), Nirunthan Sivananthan, Panushanth Kulenthiran, Gvinthan Navaneethakrishnan (Nitharshan Ratnam 76).
Subs: Robert Osman, Caliston Calistus, Dushiyan Sathiyaseelan, Lathoosan Jeyathevan, Kabilan Sithamparasakthi, Santhosh Sornalingam, Jeyasiva Sivapathasundaram

Booked: Piraburaj Jayabalakrishnan 80

Attendance: 750
Referee: Mr Mark Clattenburg (Saudi Arabia)
Assistants: Mr Karl Parker (England) & Mr Roger Lundback (Sweden)
Fourth Official: Mr Igor Gorshkov (Canada)

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