the goan I network
DULER
Goan Football Club came from a goal down to register a 3-1 win over Sporting Clube de Goa in the Goa Professional League match played at Duler Ground on Sunday.
After this league match, Goan FC has 10 points while Sporting stay on 6 points. In an absorbing and a thrilling encounter where four goals were scored and Sporting coach Mateus Costa was sent off, Ganesh Thakur gave Sporting the lead, while Princeton Rebello, Saviour Gama and Kingslee Fernandes scored for the young Gaurs.
Both the teams started cautiously in the first quarter with play being mostly restricted to midfield. The Sporting colts took the lead in the 17th minute of play. Ganesh Thakur got hold off a pass from Stendly Fernandes and finished the ball with a gentle tap to make it 1-0.
After much probing, the young Gaurs levelled terms in the 27th minute where a 30-yard free kick by Princeton Rebello had a wicked deflection off a Cajetan Fernandes header to find the ball land into the goal to make it 1-1.
Four minutes before the breather, the young Gaurs almost netted in their second goal. Sarineo Fernandes sent a cross at the first post to striker Lalawmpuia but before the latter could connect it, Alton Vaz brought a timely clearance for a corner.
Crossing over, the Young Gaurs looked unstoppable as they pumped in two more goals after a number of missed scoring chances. In the 54th minute, Lalawmpuia moved inside the penalty box dangerously from the left flank and drilled a power-packed left footer, which was brilliantly parried to safety by Sporting keeper Melroy Fernandes.
However, just two minutes later, Liston Colaco moved from the right flank and flashed the ball across the goal area to find overlapping defender Saviour Gama stab the ball into the Sporting goal to make it 2-1.
The Flaming Oranje side should have equalised in the 59th minute when Marcus Mascarenhas squared the ball to Cajetan Fernandes on the right inside of the penalty box, but the latter’s left footer ricocheted off the horizontal bar.
In the very next minute, Lalawmpuia intercepted a pass from the defence and shot at the goal which was blocked by the Sporting defender and the ball rolled to Liston who instead of taking a crack at the goal, sent a cross to Kingslee Fernandes, who guided the ball into the goal to make it 3-1.
The goal was highly debated by the Sporting players and coach Mateus Costa for an offside, which was turned down by the referee. After a couple of minutes of deliberation between Sporting coach Mateus and referee Sunil Nanodkar, the coach was sent off by the referee for uttering abusive language on the assistant referee.
As the match resumed, Sporting were once again unlucky when in the 73rd minute, a stinging 30- yard free kick by George D’Souza was blocked with a full stretched diving save by keeper Shubham Dhas and the ball travelled to Alton Vaz, whose crack at the goal was once again blocked by keeper Shubham.
In the last ten minutes of the match, the young Gaurs had two more close attempts at the rival goal through Lalawmpuia, whose first strike was blocked by the Sporting defender Clive Miranda in the 77th minute and the second by keeper Melroy
in added time.
