Football in Goa is all set to travel in the fast lane. Theartificial turf has been laid at Duler ground and since the end of December2012, this Goa Football Association owned venue in Mapusa, has been the hostfor I-League matches. However, there being a bedding-in period for thesynthetic turf, the surface is yet to settle down. Once that happens, footballmatches will be a fast-paced affair.
Vice-president of Goa Football Association, Lavinio Rebellobelieves that the 'special turf' sponsored by FIFA under the 'Goal Indiaproject', needs at least 100 games to settle down. "Once it fully settlesdown, the game will be much faster. Primarily, the positive impact of theartificial turf will be on the players. The players will have to be much fitterthan they are," says Rebello. “This turf does not have to be watered atall. It's a ready-to-play surface,” he added.
As of now, the artificial turf is new, having beencommissioned at the fag-end of last year. The granules under the green carpetcome up to the surface under the impact and hence, the ball is not travellingquickly. Nevertheless, the ground is even unlike the natural surface whichcould have up-and-down patches. This even pitch helps in completing more passesthan the natural surface hence it already looks like the game has improvedsomewhat, says a journalist, who has been covering football from Duler groundfor over a decade.
The special turf at Mapusa is the best in India, saysmanager of Salgaocar FC, Sanjiv Nagvenkar. "I have seen artificial turfsin Kolkata, Shillong and Sikkim; and I can say that this quality of grass herein Goa, is the best," he added.
Captain and forward of Churchill Brothers, Henri ArnaudAntchouet feels that the players should now practice more on artificial turf."It's beautiful," he remarks, "It's a new generation artificialground. It will be better if all teams train more on the artificial ground becausenormally all these teams (are) playing on natural grass. So a month from now, there should be animprovement," feels the 33-year-old Gabonese footballer.
Salgaocar FC assistant-coach Peter Vales is quite sure thatonce the turf settles down, there will be free-flowing football on offer."With the turf still new, the granules are causing some uncomfortablemoments for players when they take to the ground," revealed Vales.
With the artificial turf finally coming into play, after adelay of months, the Goan football calendar can look up to a smooth conduct inthe New Year.
