TEAM HERALD
PANJIM: Portais Sporting Club blanked Football Club of Neura 2-0 in the opening match of GFA’s 2nd Division Ilhas Zone Under-14 League at Carambolim Village Panchayat ground, Saturday.
Captain Aaron D’Costa was excellent for Portais Sporting Club to dominate the match whereas Neura only shined in patches.
Portais scored the first goal off a move initiated by Aaron, who after dribbling past a host of defenders, sent a diagonal pass to a better placed Mohamed Kaif Mulla, who made no mistake to tap the ball into the rival empty net.
With the lead, Portais made some confident moves with the efforts of Alden D’Souza and Orlando D’Souza but Neura goalkeeper Harsh Naik was outstanding in thwarting their tries.
Neura made an attempt to equalise but Siddharaj Naik’s powerful shot from outside the penalty area was well saved by Portais keeper Yatish Faterpaker.
Just two minutes before the half time, Portais scored the second goal when a long pass from Aaron was well collected by Sohel K. Bepari to dart the ball into rival goal in style.
At half time, the score was 2-0 in Portais favour.
Post resumption, Football Club of Neura players crowded in the defence and made it difficult for Portais to penetrate but still Portais came close thrice to score. First, a beautiful chip by Aaron beat the Neura keeper but crushed on the crossbar and Sohel missed two easy one to one goal scoring chances.
Santan Rodrigues, Vishal Vargaonkar and Shaiesh Bagkar played well for Portais in defence giving no chance to Neura players to penetrate the goal area while Siddharaj Naik and Harsh Naik played well for Football Club of Neura.
