MFA Football League: Arif Shaikh hat-trick powers Atlanta FC to easy win

The highlight of Atlanta’s massive win was the brilliant efforts of striker Arif Shaikh who led the charge with a hat-trick of goals.

FPJ Web Desk Updated: Tuesday, January 03, 2023, 08:25 AM IST
Action during the MFA Elite Division match at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Monday. |

Action during the MFA Elite Division match at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Monday. |

Mumbai, January 2: Atlanta Football Club produced an all-round 5-star performance and blanked Bombay Muslims Sports Club by a convincing 5-0 margin in an Elite Division match of the Mumbai Football Association (MFA) League and played at the Neville D’Souza ground, Bandra on Monday evening.

The highlight of Atlanta’s massive win was the brilliant efforts of striker Arif Shaikh who led the charge with a hat-trick of goals. Johnson Mathews and Himanshu Patil contributed with one goal each to complete the win.

Atlanta FC made a strong positive start as Shaikh provided them with the lead scoring the opening goal in the very eighth minute. He was again on the ball scoring the second goal five minutes later before adding the third in the 38th minute to complete his hat-trick and give Atlanta a commanding 3-0 half-time advantage. After the change of ends, Atlanta struck two more goals through Mathews in the 48th minute and Patil in the 61st minute to round-off the winning tally.

Earlier, in the Second Division encounter, Future Stars FC ‘B’ combined perfectly as a team and outplayed Mumbai Strikers (PFC) by a comfortable 4-0 margin. Strikers Sohan Jagtap, Sujal Shinde, Rudolf D’Souza and Gajendra Singh, all chipped in with a goal each in leading Future Stars to a facile victory.

Later, in another match of the same division, The Soccer Academy rode on the fine scoring efforts of striker Glainel Pullokaran who notched up a hat-trick of goals to hand Iron Born FC 7-1 defeat. Pullokarn’s teammates Ritesh Barde scored two goals while Kush Wadhwa and Sanket Patil netted one each to complete the margin of victory. Iron Born scored the lone goal through Zarayus Anklesaria’s strike in the first half.

Results – Second Div: Future Stars FC ‘B’ 4 (Sohan Jagtap, Sujal Shinde, Rudolf D’Souza, Gajendra Singh) beat Mumbai Strikers (PFC) 0.

Youth Soccer Academy 1 (Soham Katkar) beat Veera United 0.

The Soccer Academy 7 (Glainel Pullokaran 3, Ritesh Barde 2, Kush Wadhwa, Sanket Patil) beat Iron Born FC 1 (Zarayus Anklesaria).

Elite Div: Atlanta FC 5 (Arif Shaikh 3 (8,13,38), Johnson Mathews 48, Himanshu Patil 61) beat Bombay Muslims SC 0.

The Oranje FC 2 (Mohammad Sayyed, Aimar Adam) beat Mumbai Knights-JMJ Sports Club 0.

Published on: Tuesday, January 03, 2023, 08:25 AM IST

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