TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Dempo Sports Club managed to get the better of SAI Training 2-1 in the opening match of GFA’s U-18 First Division Football League at Sangolda ground, here, on Friday.
The winners led 2-0 at the breather.
It was a match of two halves. Dempo dominated the first while SAI controlled the second session. It was the goals from Elison Pereira’s penalty and Quan Gomes’ delightful strike separated the teams even as SAI pulled a late goal through defender Vishvdeep’s header.
SAI came close to finds the nets in the very 2nd minute when speedy Lalit Tariyal shot past Dempo keeper Rohan Viegas but Dempo’s Karan Hubir came to his side’s rescue with a timely clearance.
Then onwards, Dempo took charge as Joel Fernandes and Quan pulled the strings in the midfield. Quan was certainly creating havoc for the rival defenders with his skilful movement.
In the 19th minute, Quan moved dangerously down the right flank and sent the ball inside the danger zone to Jaison Dias, whose effort was blocked by rival keeper Sidesh Medani.
The ball bounced back to Dempo’s Karan, who was about to pull the trigger but was brought down by Vishvdeep, prompting referee Sainath to award a penalty. Centre-back Elison stepped in, kept his calm and chose his spot even as the rival keeper dived to the right managing to just get his gloves graze the ball, 1-0.
Dempo did not lose focus and maintained the tempo. In the 35th minute, Quan made it 2-0 as he intelligently blasted off from outside the box, noticing the goalkeeper out of position.
Post resumption, the scoreline hardly reflected as SAI were in total control. Dempo struggled in front. SAI looked promising but efforts from Lalit Tariyal and Harshad Tube failed to deliver. They could only manage to reduce the margin with two minutes to go for the final whistle as lanky Vishvdeep head in off a flag-kick by Domnic Rodrigues.
