Team Herald
MAPUSA: Dempo Sports Club registered an easy 2-0 win over Salgaocar Football Club in the Goa Professional League match, organised by Goa Football Association, played at Duler Stadium, here on Thursday.
Kapil Hoble and Yogesh Kadam scored in each half to take their side at the top of the league table with nine points from three matches.
Dempo coach Samir Naik made no changes to his side, while Salgaocar coach Norbert Gonsalves made the only one bringing in Malvin Lobo in place of Joaquim Carvalho in the starting XI.
Both the teams started the match with an end-to-end play where both the keepers were tested in the early of the match. First, Salgaocar’s U-20 Ribhav Sardessai sent a powerful shot from outside the box but his strike missed the target by few inches.
Whereas Dempo’s Beevan D’Mello had the best chance to take his into the lead when Salgaocar last line failed to clear Nickson Castanha’s long free-kick and the ball travelled to the striker with just keeper to beat but his right-footer was collected by Salgaocar keeper Abijit Das.
A few minutes later, Salgaocar keeper Das rescued his side with a superb clearance when he flung high to push Mario Mascarenhas’ curling corner for safety. At the other end, Brian Mascarenhas dribbled past a defender in his run and tried his luck from the edge of the box but his shot missed the target by hairline distance.
Dempo had almost taken the lead when Beevan’s header found the net off Mario’s fine cross from the left flank but the striker failed to beat the offside trap as the referee Tejas Nagvenkar cancelled the same.
Finally, Dempo opened their account in the 43rd minutes when Beevan cut past Salgaocar defender Leny Pereira and sent a lofted pass at the far post to Kapil Hoble, who just made an easy tap-in to make it 1-0 for the Golden Eagles.
On crossing over, Salgaocar coach Norbert introduced newly signed Nigerian striker Joel Sunday replacing U-20 Ribhav but the striker failed to impress the coach in his first appearance.
At the hour mark, Dempo’s Beevan was unlucky as he saw his powerful header rebound off the crossbar with every opponent beaten.
Three minutes later, Dempo U-20 midfielder Nestor Dias was brilliantly set up in the box with just keeper to beat but his efforts were divingly pushed away for a corner by keeper Das.
Dempo doubled their lead in the 73rd minutes through Yogesh Kadam. In the event, Beevan made a swift run on the wing before curling it to the winger in the box, where his first attempt hit the Salgaocar defender but Yogesh was quick enough to put it in the net in his second attempt, making it 2-0 for the five times I-league Champions.
At the other end, Brian came up with a fine cross from the left to find Sunday in front of the goal but the Nigerian striker failed to direct his header in the goal from the handshaking distance as it was brilliantly saved by Dempo keeper Agnelo.
