Ali Thameem
In the semifinal of this year’s President’s Cup, defending champions Maziya Sports and Recreation are set to face the most successful team in the tournament’s history, New Radiant Sports Club, on Friday night.
Maziya secured the semifinal spot as group winners. The Green Boys had won both their games, defeating Buru Sports Club 1-0 in the opening match and Victory Sports Club 2-0 on Monday night. Maziya is the only team among the six participants to win both fixtures, and they did it with two clean sheets.
Maziya remains unbeaten in the season. They had started the season by defeating Club Eagles in the charity shield. They went on to win every game of the FAM League Cup in May. They had won all but three games of the eighteen DPL fixtures this season as they defended the league title.
Victory Sports Club, the most decorated club in history besides New Radiant, has thus exited the tournament after two defeats.
New Radiant Sports Club, who were grouped with Odi Sports Club and Club Eagles, remain unbeaten as they qualified for the semifinals as group runner-ups. They had drawn with Odi Sports Club 1-1 on the opening day, before knocking out Club Eagles with a 2-1 victory on Sunday.
New Radiant had reached the semifinals of FAM League Cup last May under head coach Sobah Mohamed. They had unfortunately got knocked out by Odi Sports Club. Since then, the club had brought in Ali Suzain as head coach, and transferred in over a dozen elite players, as they were allowed to compete in the Dhivehi Premier League.
New Radiant fumbles early lead as Maziya widens gap at the top
Finishing third in the league on their return to top flight after six years, New Radiant had displayed incredible resilience. But Maziya remains as their biggest threat. New Radiant had been defeated by the Green Boys of Maziya with a comeback in their first confrontation in this DPL season, and drawn 2-2 in the second. They had lost to Maziya 5-1 on the opening fixture of the FAM League Cup back in May.
But on the other hand, New Radiant remains a threat to Maziya as well. They are still the biggest name in the President’s Cup, if not in all of Maldivian football. Since the rebranding of the tournament 21 years ago, New Radiant had been champions in five different seasons, the most of any club. They won it the last time they played in the competition, back in 2017.
If New Radiant wins the semifinal on Friday, it would be the first time Maziya would lose a domestic game in over two and a half years. If Maziya wins the semifinal, they would be 90 minutes away from winning the trophy for a third time.
Editor’s note: This article has been edited to correct a statistical error.
