Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Football Club Bardez were held to a goalless draw by Guardian Angel Sports Club in the GFA Goa Pro League match, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Monday.
The Bardez Club now have 18 points from nine matches while Guardian Angel have nine points from 6 matches.
Despite the score line, the match played under flood-lights never witnessed any dry spells, whereby, both the sides dished out good brand of football, however the final touch which converts a good move into a goal was sadly missing.
FC Bardez received two quick corners in a span of four minutes when Guardian Angel stopper back Micky Fernandes was guilty of bringing down Latesh Mandrekar and Myron Mendes on the edge of the 18-yard box, however Alesh Sawant failed to score on both occasions from the resultant free-kicks.
Ten minutes into the match Alesh Sawant curled in his corner towards Rowilson Rodrigues who headed it towards Myron Mendes, who failed to connect his reverse kick into the back of the Guardian Angel nets.
In the 38th minute, Curchorem squad had a close shave at the rival goal when Micky Fernandes unleashed a rasping right footer which was blocked by Anil Chawan only to see the ball travel back to Micky, however this time his effort travelled just past the Bardez target.
Moments before the halftime whistle, Curchorem came with a fine built up move when Perryson Rebello sent the ball towards Yakubu Mohammed who in turn set up Nicholas Rodrigues however the latter’s powerful shot was blocked by the Bardez keeper.
On resumption of play, Alesh Sawant charged into the Curchorem danger zone only to see his placing strike being kept away by the alert keeper Ram Sroop.
In a quick turn of events, Yakubu danced his way past the defenders and sneaked into the Bardez goal area, however he was timely dispossessed by keeper Mirshad, before he could do any damage.
In the 71st minute, Curchorem keeper made life difficult for himself when he failed to hold onto Latesh Mandrekar’s deep floater and the ball rolled to skipper Peter Carvalho who was lurking nearby, however before the latter could aim towards goal, the keeper managed to grab hold of the ball.
One of the best chances for Guardian Angel came in the 83rd minute, when Yakubu sent a perfect defence splitting pass to Lavino Fernandes who surprisingly made a mess of events and blasted the ball wide.
Two minutes later the untiring Alesh Sawant on getting hold of the ball set the ball towards Koko Sakibo whose placing strike from close range was brilliantly pushed away by keeper Ram.
