Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Santa Cruz Club of Cavelossim gave Football Club De Bardez a run for their money in their goalless draw duel in the GFA’s Goa Pro League match, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Thursday.
Cavelossim now have 11points from six matches while FC Bardez have eight points of five matches.
In the keenly fought encounter both the sides displayed some entertaining football, leaving their large number of supporters on the edge of their seats.
In the early minutes of the match, Bardez custodian Mirshad did a brilliant job under the horizontal bar, first when he got hold of Joshuah Vaz powerful shot at the goal and minutes later when he managed to keep away Melwin Fernandes right footer.
At the other end, Bardez initiated an attack in the 13th minute, however Koko Sakibo failed to keep his header off Peter Carvalho’s cross within the Cavelossim woodwork.
Cavelossim got back into the attack a minute later, however Bardez keeper Mirshad once again came to his team’s rescue to thwart Melwin Fernandes’s goal bound effort.
Cavelossim keeper Agnelo Gomes too proved apt for the task under the horizontal bar, when he fisted away Alesh Sawant’s hot blooded 25-yard shot.
Bardez’s Jessel Carneiro managed to hoodwink the Cavelossim defenders but his curling shot was swayed away by keeper Agnelo.
Crossing over, both the sides adapted to midfield tactics for a long duration, with moves few and far between.
In the final quarter of the match, both sides got back into the attacking mode when Girish Naik set a perfect first time ball to Alesh Sawant, who attempted to back-heel the ball into the Cavelossim goal, however keeper Agnelo managed to ward off the danger.
In the injury minutes of the match, the Bardez outfit initiated a series of vicious attacks on the Cavelossim citadel and had it not been for their keeper, the scoreline would be an embarrassing one for Cavelossim.
His best save of the match came when Richard Costa sent a perfect long pass to Alesh Sawant, whose header was acrobatically plucked from the air by the diving keeper Agnelo, thereby earning himself a standing ovation from the crowd.
