MAPUSA: Football Club de Bardez struggled before registering a 2-1 win over Santa Cruz Sports Club, Cavelossim in the GFA’s U20 Taca Soccer Cup, played at Duler Stadium, here, on Monday.
The winners now have five points off four league matches while Cavelossim have nine points from four matches.
At halftime, both the sides were tied at 1-1 draw with Sarineo Fernandes giving FC Bardez the lead and Moises Fernandes restoring parity for Cavelossim.
The sides played their hearts out looking for nothing less than a win.
FC Bardez shot into the lead in the 10th minute of play when a defensive error by Anil Shivolkar proved too costly for Cavelossim as Sarineo, who was lurking nearby pounced on the opportunity and fired the ball into the far corner of the nets leaving no chance to keeper Jeet Sanjay Gupta, 1-0.
Cavelossim managed to level terms in the 24th minute of play through Moises whose powerful free-kick from outside the danger zone beat the FC Bardez keeper hands down, 1-1.
Sarineo came teasingly close to scoring his brace in the 30th minute of play. However, his free-kick missed the target narrowly.
At the other end, Cavelossim’s Moises sent a lovely long ball to Mathew Colaco, whose header went just past the FC Bardez goal.
In the add on time, FC Bardez had two close shaves at scoring, but first Cavelossim keeper Jeet did a brilliant job to keep away Jesmon Soares free-kick and moments later Manjunath Rathod’s long range effort sailed inches over the rival woodwork.
Crossing over, both sides continued from where they had left, initiating several threatening moves, keeping their rival keepers on their toes.
In the 55th minute, Mathew on getting hold of the ball charged into the FC Bardez danger zone and seeing the keeper off his line tried to lob it over. However, the ball travelled wide to the dismay of his teammates.
Couple of minutes later, FC Bardez keeper Suresh Lamani came with a diving save to deny Moises from scoring.
In the final quarter of the match, FC Bardez raised the bar of the attack, keeping their opponents pinned in their own backyard.
First, Ronil Azavedo saw his header travel just past the goal and then Cavelossim custodian Jeet came with a brave save to deny Kirtikesh in a one to one situation.
Cavelossim’s Cryson Fernandes effected two-goal line clearances to frustrate the efforts of Saviour Gama and Sarineo.
Their constant pressure finally paid off in the stoppage time when Manjunath set up Saviour, who after covering some ground, drilled the ball home to send the FC Bardez supporters into raptures, 2-1.
