Sporting Clube down Sikkim
TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
MARGAO: Sporting Club de Goa defeated United Sikkim Football Club 2-1 in a sixth round I-League match at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, Sunday. All the goals came in the first half.
Refusing to play for a draw, The Flaming Oranje attacked the rival citadel right from the word go. New recruit Japanese Seiya Sugishita impressed on debut as he troubled the rival defence with his speed.
Sporting found the success in the eighth minute when midfielder Pratesh Shiordkar’s cross was not cleared by the rival defender and the ball travelled to Joseph Pereira who floated the ball inside the rival box and Seiya made no mistake in heading the ball home.
Six minutes later, Sporting doubled the lead when Nigerian midfielder Ogba Kalu unleashed a carpet drive which beat the rival goalkeeper Yoon Tae off a cross from Seiya.
Thereafter Sporting Club created more chances but could not convert them.
After taking a 2-0 cushion, Sporting Clube slackened their pace and allowed the visitors to exert pressure. They had a narrow escape when Sporting goalkeeper Gerard D’Mello came to his side’s rescue and thwarted Nadoing Bhutia before he could do any damage off a pass from Linekar Machado.
The visitors had an excellent chance to reduce the deficit in the 30th minute when Nadoing Bhutia beat his markers and sent a defence splitting pass inside the rival penalty box but Nurjeeden Salau failed to convert the chance.
The visitors reduced the deficit in the injury time of the first half when Sandesh Jhingam slotted in the rebound after the Sporting goalkeeper failed to clear an Ansari header off a Nadoing Bhutia free kick.
Changing over, Sporting Clube nearly made it 3-1 but Seiya’s left-footer was blocked by the rival goalkeeper. Sikkim United brought some fresh legs and even former India captain Baichung Bhutia was brought in but it yielded no result. The rivals depended on counterattacks but substitute Keita Boubakar was rock solid and frustrate the rival attacks.
With this win Sporting took their tally to seven from six matches while United Sikkim are at the 12th spot with four points. Seiya who played a stellar role for Sporting was adjudged man-of-the-match.
Sporting coach Ekendra was satisfied with the performance of his boys. “They played well especially in the first half and missed a couple of chances but it was difficult as the visitors came hard at us after losing by a huge margin in the previous match,” Ekendra said. Despite the loss United Sikkim Football Club’s team manager Arunava Bhattacharya was pleased with his boys and said it was a much better performance than the previous match. “It is very difficult to play the next match in this fashion after the drubbing from Prayag United and I am quite pleased with today’s performance,” he said.