DULER: Salgoacar Football Club registered a solitary goal win over Football Club of Goa in the 1st AWES Cup 2017 match organised by Goa Football Association and Dempo Sports Club Juniors, played at Duler Stadium, Mapusa, on Saturday.
FC Goa coach Derrick Pereira named Yasir Mohammed who was picked in from the ISL Draft, in the starting XI while Amey Ranawade who was picked from draft missed out due to injury. He also made sure that former Salgaocar Liston Colaco, Hayden Fernandes and Meldon D’Silva start for the team.
Salgaocar coach Norberto Gonsalves brought in Sanson Pereira, Brian Mascarenhas and Umesh Harijan replacing Assumption Soares, Denil Rebello and Lalit Tariad from the last Charity Cup match against FC Bardez.
Both the teams started the match on an attacking note as the complete first session witnessed the end to-end play. However, the Greens were more potent in the session with better attacking index.
It was just 6 minutes on the match clock when Salgaocar had almost taken the lead when Brian’s long distance free-kick was almost crashing it into the goal but FC Goa custodian Iprotip Das pushed it for a corner.
At the other end, FC Goa also had an opportunity take the lead but Hayden saw his blistering shot miss the target by hairline distance. A minute later Yasir came with a perfect ball in the box but first Jason Barbosa failed to connect it and later Savior Gama could not reach to the ball and the ball directly went to Salgaocar keeper Abhijit Das.
The last few minutes of the first session witnessed dominant football from the Greens however they could not manage to damage the opponent’s defense as the first half ended in a goalless.
Like in the first half, Salgaocar started the second session with attacking football and it took them just five minutes to open their tally. Brian’s 30-yard free-kick finished into the back of the nylons, beating keeper Iprotip hands down, 1-0.
FC Goa quickly recovered from the damage and rallied on the opponents but their midfielder Kingslee Fernandes could not direct his shot in the net as the ball went into hands of Salgaocar keeper Das. A few minutes later, they had another opportunity to level the terms as Saviour Gama cut past few defenders in his long run but his inaccurate shot travelled wide.
At the other end Salgaocar’s Agnelo’s commanding free-kick was timely fisted for a corner by rival keeper.
In the last few minutes, Salgaocar coach Gonsalves replaced Harmanjot Singh with Clencio Pinto. The substitute lad first touch could have inflated their lead but his placement at the goal hit Franzil Negredo and went into the hands of keeper Das.
With failing to convert any of their chances, FC Goa suffered a narrow defeat at the hands of the Green Brigade.