ALLAN D’CRUZ
PANJIM: Sporting Clube de Goa began their pre-season training at Miramar on Thursday.
Though the side officially marked the season open on July 29 by invoking God’s blessing through a Eucharistic celebration, the side gathered for the first time in training kit on Thursday.
The numbers were present for the training but not the usual faces. There has been a sea change in the side. Last season, despite having a strong core team and many big names, Sporting Clube de Goa failed to defend the title and finished third in the Goa Professional League.
However, this year, the Flaming Oranje aren’t the same as many left the club and equally joined the team from the development programme. Joyston Cardozo, Glan Martins, Quan Gomes, Ganesh Takur and Mauvin Borges (moved to Churchill Brothers) and Fedy Raid has parted ways with the club thus creating opportunities for the developing players.
The side roped in Welvin Maximo Menezes and Marcelino Pereira as Club Chief Executive Officer and Head coach respectively. Dressed in green and white strips, Sporting Clube de Goa players stretched and had shot warm-up drills before they had a light moment with their newly appointed coach Pereira.
Speaking about the team, Sporting Clube de Goa’s newly appointed CEO Welvin Menezes, said, “The team is a mixture of youth and experience. We have five players who have parted ways and there are couple more who haven’t reported for the training yet. But there are positives too. We have around eight players from our development side joining the main team.”
“We have set our target and we will give our best to reclaim our title,” concluded Welvin.
This year, Sporting Clube will have to heavily bank on Cajetan Fernandes, Marcus Mascarenhas, Girish Naik, Joseph Clemente and seasoned-campaigner Peter Carvalho to guide the youngsters.
Team Manager Angelo (Anju) Albuquerque was quick in tackling the question when asked whether the side would feature any outstation or foreign players.
“As of now we are concentrating on the players we have with us but you can always expect some changes according to the coach’s desires and tactical plans. Since we just started training, we will have to wait for a while to see our strength and to check whether we would need any more players,” explained Anju,
Sporting has played a huge gamble by roping in A licensed coach Marcelino Pereira, who has earlier worked Dempo SC and Churchill Brothers FC Youth Developments teams, by assigning the Calangute-based maestro as the head coach of the senior team. This will be Marcelino’s first assignment as the head coach though he worked with Calangute Association previously as the assistant coach.
However, the former head coach for the sub-junior state teams looked confident and said, “It’s a great honour to coach Sporting Clube de Goa. Well aware of their legacy and style of play, I am prepared for the role as the head coach. We have just started our training session today and I believe as days pass I shall get to know the players much better and will be able to build a troop that will lead us to achieve our target of reclaiming the title.
Goa Professional League will not be an easy affair this year as Goan FC will definitely try hard to defend their title. Samir Naik’s Dempo SC won’t go easy while Churchill Brothers have done their home work and learnt from their past as they have added quality players among their rank this year. One cannot write off Sesa FA, who will also give their opponents a tough time. Also not forgetting Salgaocar, whose youngsters have never failed to surprise their opponents.
“It’s true it wouldn’t be easy but this itself is a big challenge and it already excites me. I am here to help my team to achieve its goal,” concluded Pereira.
