PANAJI
Salgaocar FC beat Football Club de Bardez 3-2 in a hard-fought encounter in the GFA U-20 TACA League game held at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Monday. Kaushik Negi, Andrus John and Saeesh Halarnkar scored for the green brigade while Reeve D'Costa scored a brace for the Bardez side.
From the word go, Salgaocar FC kept pressing hard as they tried breaching the rivals' defence through Devendra Murgaokar. Selwyn Miranda of Salgaocar ran into the box from the left flank but found his cross cleared by the Bardez defence.
Salgaocar FC should have taken the lead in the 15th minute after a mistake by Joywin Carneiro of Bardez left the ball open to Selwyn Miranda of Salgaocar, who ran into the box but played out selfish and shot wide with options open in the box. The first quarter saw Salgaocar enjoy majority of the possession and in the 21st minute, Devendra Murgaokar of Salgaocar made an individual run into the box and the Bardez keeper had no option but to bring him down, giving away a penalty to Salgaocar. Kaushik Negi made no mistake to score from the spot giving Salgaocar FC an early 1-0 lead.
Salgaocar had control of the entire game and this was evident as they doubled their lead in the 33rd minute through Andrus John. Salgaocar player Saeesh Halarnkar's shot hit the bar in the 40th minute while a minute later Devendra Murgaokar shot way above the post. From then on, nothing seemed to be working well for the Bardez forwards as most of the play was restricted to Salgaocar's side. Bardez did have some chances through Dialon Gama and Danston Fernandes but the Salgaocar defence didn't allow them to enter the 18-yard area.
Salgaocar went into the break with a comfortable 2-0 lead. Moving into the second half, Bardez came out strong as they pulled one back through Reeve D'Costa in the 55th minute as his fine shot was nowhere in reach of the Salgaocar keeper. A minute later, Bardez levelled things up through super substitute Reeve, whose soft header landed at the back of the nylons. But their joy was short-lived as, five minutes later, Salgaocar scored through Saeesh Halarnkar, who placed a perfect header off a corner kick into the back of the nets to regain a lead for his team. Bardez could have scored another but Jowyin Carneiro's header hit the crossbar in
the 70th minute.
