PANAJI
FC Bardez Goa held the mighty Salgaocar FC to a draw in the Taca U-20 match played at Duler Stadium on Sunday.
FC Bardez took control of the game from the start as they had the most amount of possession during the entire game. Both the goals came in the dying embers of the game as substitute Mahesh Kumar scored a tap in in the 86th minute of the game and Kirtikesh Gadekar scored from a rebound a minute later as the game ended 1-1.
At the start of the game both teams looked confident, but as the minutes passed by FC Bardez started taking control of the match. In the seventh minute, Sarineo Fernandes put in a good cross from a foul, Jesmon Soares got the ball and the shot apparently hit a Salgaocar defender's hands and went out for a corner. However, the referee waived off appeals for a penalty. Ruflon was awarded a yellow card for a rash tackle on Babu three minutes later.
Just two minutes later, Ronil passed the ball to Jesmon who in turn passed the ball to Sarineo who hit the side-netting. In the 23rd minute, Salgoacar had their first attempt on goal as Lalit had a great chance to score but he shot wide. In the 39th minute Babu had a superb run on goal and passed the ball to Ronil inside the box who controlled the ball but shot it over the crossbar.
All the action happened in the dying moments of the match as Salgoacar man Mahesh got a pass inside the box and in turn had to just tap it in to make it 1-0 for the Greens in the 86th minute. Just one minute later, FC Bardez captian Kirtikesh struck the equaliser as Luis shot the ball at goal and the goalkeeper couldn’t catch it. Kirtikesh got there just in time to score from the rebound to make it 1-1.
FC Bardez Head Coach Climax Lawrence said, “I’m very happy with the result. We dominated the game. We lost to Churchill as we did not get enough time to practice, but today we showed that we can do it. The boys played their heart out today and I'm really proud of them."
