MAPUSA: Calangute Association blanked Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim by a 4-1 margin in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, here on Monday.
The three points helped Calangute climb to the 3rd position with 32 points from 21 matches, while the South Goa club remained at the 11th place with 12 points from 17 matches.
Calangute coach Alex Alvares made only one change to his side which thrashed FC Bardez 5-0 in the last match as U-20 Selwyn D’Souza replaced Leslee Britto in the starting XI, whereas, Alvito Miranda and Nevile Fernandes were back in the starting XI for Cavelossim after missing out in the last match where they held Bardez in a high scoring draw.
Calangute had a great chance to take the lead in the very first minute when their Nigerian defender Kouame Joseph found Blake Haldankar with a pin-point perfect lob pass but the striker’s shot was easily collected by the Cavelossim keeper Razak Devsor.
The next 10 minutes were completely dominated by the South Goan club with continuous raids on the opponents where they were awarded two free-kicks just outside the box, but first Rohan Kamble’s shot
went just over the crossbar, while Calangute keeper Jason D’Mello stretched to his limit to push Moises D’Sa’s goal-bound shot for safety.
At the half-hour mark, Kouame came up with another brilliant lob pass to Selwyn but the striker’s shot from the top of the box hit the goal-post and went out for a goal-kick with every opponent beaten.
The rest of the session witnessed an end-to-end play but neither of the sides managed to break the deadlock until the half-time whistle.
However, Calangute took 10 minutes into the second session to open their account through Kouame as the Nigerian defender brilliantly cut past a defender after collecting a long goal-kick and stylishly finished the ball in the back of the nylons to put his side into the lead.
The Nigerian defender added another goal to his name in the 62nd minute when he nicely headed in from close off substitute Josley Dias’ fine corner.
Down by two goals with just less than 20 minutes left, Cavelossim coach Severino Fernandes brought in Samson Simoes to hone them in the attacking and the striker delivered in the very next minute.
Semson Fernandes made a short pass to Samson outside the box, who had covered some ground cutting past a defender and placed the ball in the net from the top of the box to reduce the margin for his side.
At the other end, Blake was brought down by Cavelossim defender Michael Silva in the box to give away the penalty kick to the opponents, where Kouame made no mistake to beat the keeper Razak from the spot to complete his hat-trick.
Nigerian defender Kouame scored the fourth goal in the 87th when he easily tapped in from goalmouth off Blake’s low cross from the right to make it 4-1 for the Beach side.
