Team Herald
PANJIM: Dempo held their nerves in the sudden-death and prevailed 2-1 for an overall score of 8-7 in the college boys semi-finals of the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports Boys Football tournament, at the Tilak Maidan ground, Vasco, on Wednesday.
Dempo played a more compact game with free-flowing passing and build-ups that had the rivals on the backfoot. They settled into a rhythm and moved into the driver’s seat soon after the kick-off, refusing to let Rosary to settle into their groove. That seemed to upset their rhythm which Dempo took advantage of and sneaked into the lead in the 13th minute.
Boosted by the one-goal advantage, Dempo continued to mount pressure on the rival citadel with attacks from the flanks and down the middle. Seven minutes later, Dion Fernandes got into the act, beating Rosary goalkeeper Ozen Silva in the 20th minute to drive home the advantage as Dempo went into the lemon break with a comfortable 2-0 lead.
They resumed their domination on resumption with the defence putting up a stout-hearted performance but somewhere down the line they took their foot off the gas and allowed Rosary come back into the game with two strikes within a span of three minutes through Joston Fernandes and Aaron D’Silva in the 40th and 43rd minutes respectively.
They regrouped after the double reverse and somehow once again snatched the lead in the 57th minute through Devendra only to see Rosary bounce back.
They staged a grand fight back putting the Dempo defence under tremendous pressure with Aaron D’Silva pulling strings with flair from the middle of the park, harnessing the strikers and his fellow midfielders with fluency.
Just when Dempo scented victory Clive Miranda threw Rosary a lifeline slipping the ball into the net in the 79th minute to take the game into the tie-breaker.
Dempo’s players held their nerves in the tie-breaker and scored through Salu Santos, Aaron D’Silva, Latish Kunkolikar ,Devendra and Chetan Vernekar while Rosary got their goals through Joven, Lenny Fernandes, Sneden Medeira and Clive Costa.
