DOHA, QATAR
Portuguese Goans topped the league stage of the 4-team 6-a-side Portugal Fans Qatar tournament with an all-win record and moved into the semifinals.
On Friday night, playing two back-to-back matches, the Goan boys registered a narrow and fighting 2-1 and 1-0 wins over Portugal Fans Kerala and Tugas, respectively. On Wednesday, the Portuguese Goans had begun their campaign with an emphatic 4-1 win over Os Quinas and with Friday’s two wins finished on top of the league with nine points followed by Tugas and Portugal Fans Kerala on four points each and Os Tugas at the bottom of the table.
The semifinals interestingly pit the Goans against Tugas in the semifinal on October 14 while Portugal Fans Kerala will take on Tugas, which consists of mostly Portuguese nationals based in Qatar. The final will be played on the same night at the same venue.
In Friday’s matches, the Goan team began the night with a fighting 2-1 win over Portugal Fans Kerala. The Goans opened the scoring through the efforts of pocket size skillful dynamo Adler Soares in the very first minute of the match catching the Keralites on the wrong foot.
Thereafter, Goans played some copybook style of ball possession which was pleasing to the eye and entertaining. They used the full width of the play field to spray the passes and were able to keep the ball in their control for long spells.
The Goans increased the lead in the 14th minute through Muzamil (Muza) Mamlekar in the 14th minute, Muza who missed the first match due to office commitments made the most to notch the second goal. The Portugal Fans Kerala pulled one back in the injury time of the second half with Murshad Basheer slotting his shot past Nikhil D’Souza in the Goan goal.
In the second match, the Goans, who missed the services of their regular goalkeeper Craig D’Souza and Anthony Carvalho, a skillful and handful player in hey days in Qatar and who could have walk his way into any professional team in Goa in his youth days, were reinforced with the return of Oliver Joshua Bennis, who had to serve a one-match suspension on account of the red card he got in the last match.
The return of Bennis gave more teeth to the Goan firepower and it bore results with the Goans taking the lead in the Muza in the very second minute and holding on to the lead till the end to finish the league with an all win record. In the other match of the evening between the two Portuguese laden team Tugas helped by a brace by Paulo Marques (2 and 13 minute) and goals from Andre Sousa (22) and Daniel Castro (28) romped home to 4-0 win over Os Quinas.
