THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Sporting Clube de Goa went down to Sesa FA 0-1 in the GFA U-18 League, courtesy a 61st-minute goal by Kunal Salgaonkar at Duler grounds, on Thursday.
The first half saw Sesa unit enjoying a lion share of possession and Sporting backline were tested on more than few occasions. Within the first 10 minutes, Cyrus Noronha of Sesa took a swing from outside the box but the shot went wide. Sporting came back with an encouraging move which saw Princeton Rebello try his luck from 30 yards off but the ball curved away from the net. It was the heroics of Sporting custodian Akshat Hadkonkar that kept the young Oranje in the hunt when he pulled out spectacular saves on two occasions denying Vishnu Gosavi and Kunal of Sesa FA their name on the score card. It stayed goalless at the end of first half.
Switching ends, the young Oranje showed some promising football maintaining a constant pressure in the Sesa box. Early in the first half Joy Hilario's dangerous cross was a little too fast for Cyrus Moura to latch on. Sporting had their best opportunity in the 51st minute when Princeton set up Joy with a good cross, the latter collected the ball well but failed to keep his shot low.
Sesa finally dug out the result just around an hour mark when a Dylan Fernandes' corner found Kunal at the right spot to head in the decisive goal making it 1-0 in favour of Sesa. Following the goal, Sesa lads stepped up the gas trying to wrap up proceedings. However, Sporting custodian Akshat was once again impressive as the young goalkeeper pulled out a fantastic double save first stopping a powerful strike from Lionel D'Souza and then denying Kunal's shot on the rebound. Towards the ending moments, Sporting threw every trick in their book trying to break down the Sesa defence which proved to be a hard nut to crack. In the final minutes, Cyrus Noronha of Sesa received his marching orders for picking up the second yellow for a foul on Princeton but that did a little help for the Oranje as the game ended in favour of Sesa FA. With this result, Sporting have managed 6 points from 3 matches played, while Sesa has 16 from six matches.
