Pro League action between Calangute Association and Vasco SC on Saturday.
PANAJI
Calangute Association stunned table-toppers Vasco Sports Club 1-0 in the Goa Football Association Selvel Goa Professional League, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Saturday.
Kouame Junior scored in the 60th minute, which proved to be the only difference in the game. Vasco remain on 12 points at the top, while Calangute now move to nine points from five games.
Both teams had one change in their line-up. For Vasco, Hafiz Ur Rehman started in midfield while Vineet Bugde returned in the playing XI for Calangute Association.
Vasco SC showed the attacking intent from the word go. There were crosses in the Calangute box but the Port Towners couldn't get the last act right. But it was Calangute who came closest to scoring in the 12th minute from a corner kick. Sidhart Kundaikar's flag-kick found Kouame Junior in the box, and his weak header fell to Chaitan Dabholkar, but the U-20 midfielder couldn't make the best of the opportunity.
At the other end, Vasco missed a chance when Anil Gaonkar's header from a Denil Rebello corner sailed over the bar. While the remainder of the first 45 minutes was restricted to midfield, Calangute missed a golden chance to take the lead in the first-half injury time. Chaitan Dabholkar, on getting a diagonal ball from the left flank, sent in a cross to Siddhant Shirdokar, whose header came off the crossbar and fell to Domnic Fernandes. With keeper at his mercy, the midfielder inexplicably shot wide.
Soon after the restart, Vasco had their moment of the game as Kudeep Kumar nearly buried home Denil's corner kick. It was kept out by an alert keeper Paramveer Singh but the ball wasn't cleared by the Calangute defence and it fell to a Vasco player who played it back to Kuldeep and the defender headed wide. Kuldeep had another chance from a freekick. This time he connected a Francis freekick well but was denied by the crossbar.
In the 60th minute, Calangute scored from a counter-attack. Fulganco Cardozo won the ball in the defence and played to Sidharth who played a cleaver aerial through to Siddhant Shirodkar on the right, who managed to get past his marker and sent in a cross in the box, where Kouame Junior headed past Vasco keeper Sanju Thapa.
Calangute had a couple of attempts thereafter. First Siddhant Shirodkar's shot was straight at the keeper and then Domnic Fernandes had a goal-bound shot blocked by Anil.
