By REDintern Zul Ahmad

IVP football

An overhead kick by SMU’s Adib gets past the despairing defense of the NYP goalie and defender. The goal put SMU 2-0 into the lead and that’s how the match finished. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)

Nanyang Polytechnic, Monday, January 30, 2012 — The Singapore Management University (SMU) defeated Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) 2-0 in an enthralling encounter of the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic (IVP) Football Championship.

The highlight of the game was the overhead kick goal scored by Adib (SMU #5). SMU captain Guo Guang had scored the first of his team’s goals earlier in the second half.

Speaking about his amazing goal, Adib said, “I intended to do it, it was in the heat of the moment and I just went for it.”

The match result however did not put SMU through to the semi-finals. SMU had previously lost 0-1 to Temasek Polytechnic (TP), 0-2 to Republic Polytechnic (RP) and drawn 0-0 with the National University of Singapore (NUS).

“Individually, we are not as good compared to the other teams, but I think we were able to make it up with team spirit,” said SMU captain Guo Guang.

TP finished top of Group A with a 3-win, 1-draw, 0-loss (3-1-0) record while RP finished second with a 3-0-1 record. TP beat RP 1-0 in their group encounter but RP qualified for the semi-finals along with TP. NYP finished bottom of the group after losing all their group matches.

Singapore Polytechnic (SP) and the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) qualified for the semi-finals from Group B. SP finished top of the group with a 3-1-0 record while ITE were second with 3-0-1. SP beat ITE 1-0 when the two teams met in the group stages.

SP will now go up against RP in the semi-finals while the other semi-final will be a replay of last year’s IVP football final, with TP battling against ITE.

The ITE team would surely be looking to exact revenge for their 0-1 loss.

Both semi-finals will take place on Monday, February 6th, 7pm. SP will play RP at home while TP will host ITE.

IVP Football Championship — fixtures and results

IVP football

SMU captain Guo Guang sees his shot eventually go over the NYP goal. However, he was spot on later when scoring the opening goal for his team. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)