Rajagiri Public School defeated Assisi Vidyaniketan Public School by 1-0

Reliance Foundation Youth Sports Season 2: Rajagiri Public School defeated Assisi Vidyaniketan Public School by 1-0 in the opening game of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports Season 2 in Kochi. Rajagiri Public School were particularly threatening on the left side and came close to opening the scoring many times, but Alan Jose pulled off some incredible saves to deny them.

Despite fighting tooth and nail to open the scoring, RPS failed to break the deadlock as the first half ended 0-0.

AVPS played with positive intent in the second half, held much of the ball, but their passing in the final third was weak. Kevin continued to pose a lot of problems for the AVPS defence with ferocious runs on the left side but it was Athul Augustine, who put RPS up front by scoring a direct goal from a corner in the 50th minute.

Assisi rallied to avoid an opening day defeat but the defence of Rajagiri proved too strong for them.

RPS came up with some stunning counter-attacking football in the final proceedings of the game and came close to extending the lead but Alan Jose’s heroics kept the score 1-0 in full time.

Sidharth Warrier was awarded the Man of the match for his impressive showing for RPS in the midfield.

Kerala Blasters player CK Vineeth spoke about the impact of RFYS in Kerala “The Kids are getting opportunities and I didn’t get any of these like him (Ajith Sivan)”. Sivan was a part for RFYS 2016 and has been called up by the Kerala Blasters FC for the upcoming ISL season. 

“I didn’t even see a ground at that time. The important thing is the opportunity to play, but it is closely followed by the facilities. We can’t make Ronaldos or Messis with a small infrastructure; we need large infrastructure and that’s how the players will do better.” He added 

“Thirdly, it is the publicity. You can see how people and kids are sitting here. If I can share my life, ISL and all these things totally changed my life.”