Mehdi costs DS in Media Cup

Despite dominating the game throughout, The Daily Star saw their Kool-BSJA Media Cup campaign end after a 5-4 defeat on penalties to BanglaVision in the quarterfinal at the BFF Artificial Turf today.

The game was all but over after BanglaVision buried their fifth and final spot-kick as The Daily Star's Abdullah Al Mehdi stepped up. There was virtually no hope that Mehdi would score as his body language clearly showed a lack of confidence. The extent of his butterflies became clearer as Mehdi twice failed to place the ball for his spot-kick. Mercifully, the referee intervened and set the ball for the long-haired diva.

Unfortunately, as Mehdi attempted to wrap his leg around the ball and place it, he kicked too early. The ball hit the outside of his foot and veered away towards the corner flag.

All the other DS penalty-takers -- Mazhar Uddin, skipper Samama Rahman, Orchid Changma and Nabid Yeasin -- kept a calm head and converted while their usually brilliant keeper Ashfaq Ul Mushfiq failed to stop one.

Before the tense shoot-out, it was The Daily Star who enjoyed most of the possession. But they failed to break down a packed defence. With skipper Samama back in the line-up after being AWOL for their final group stage game, The Daily Star looked solid in defence.

Manning the backline with Samama was the ever-reliable Orchid, who stayed static at the back.

Nabid, the top-scorer for The Daily Star with two goals and an assist to his name, linked well with Mehdi and Mazhar up front. And The Daily Star could have gone ahead in the first half, with Nabid finding the slender gap between two BanglaVision defenders to pass it to Mazhar, who did his best but failed to make a proper final connection.

The Daily Star kept pressing in the second half as well and the best chance of the game came when Nabid, yet again, played an inch-perfect ball through to Mazhar, who in turn found midfielder Shovy Zibran open with a perfectly timed lay-off. Shovy mistimed the shot and The Daily Star saw another golden opportunity go begging.

Shovy would later go on to take his frustration out as he engaged in a brief brawl with the opposition.