THURSDAY, APRIL 25, 2024
Team Herald
MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa drubbed Guardian Angel SC by 9-0 margin to lift the Goa Professional League title, at Chowgule ground, Margao, on Friday.
Sporting took the top spot with 23 points while Guardian Angel stood on the 10th position with 10 points.
Sporting Clube led 1-0 at the break.
Crossing end, the Flaming Oranje started their onslaught from the 48th minute where Marcus assisted Gaurav to make it 2-0.Within minutes, Sporting were up by three goals as this time Philip assisted Akeraj before Gautam netted the fourth in the 54th minute.
There was no stopping for Sporting as they continued scoring. In the 56th minute, Myron provided an assist to Philip and then Gautam made it 6-0.In the 77th minute, Marcus made it 7-0, Sachidanand provided the assist.
In the final minutes of the game, Sporting netted two more goals through Philip and Marcus, who completed his hat-trick with the final kick of the game.
Last season 2019-2020 GPL was abandoned in the closing stages due to the COVID 19 pandemic, where Sporting Clube de Goa and Churchill Brothers were declared the joint winners as the other teams wouldn’t have surpassed them even if they had played the remaining matches.
This time, however, the competition had to be cut short to single- leg fixtures across three months, which was to be concluded on April 15, but due to some team players and team officials testing positive for COVID 19, some matches had to be rescheduled which finally ended on April 30.
In spite of Lockdown, GFA headquarters had sought special permission from the Government to organise the two matches of Selvel Goa Professional League. However, the Government had ordered that both the matches should be held without spectators, whereby entry was restricted only to the players of the teams and officials.
Nathan and Danira Vaz were ecstatic with the team being crowned champions and that too being unbeaten throughout the league. "Papa would have been proud of the boys today for their achievement. This win is especially dedicated to him. We were upset as we couldn't be present for the match due to the guidelines issued by the GFA but are happy with the end result," stated Nathan Vaz.
"Cheers to the Players for their stupendous performance during the entire league" summed up Danira Vaz.
