PANJIM: Football enjoys the official tag of ‘State Sport of Goa’ since 2012 as it has traditionally found mass popularity, especially at the inter-village level. However, its image is taking a beating. All those glorious years of Santosh Trophy success are now consigned to history while the recent past and the present trend looks somewhat fearful. Crashing out of this year’s National Championship and that too with three defeats from three matches in-a-row, has rightly upset the Who’s Who of the state football fraternity.
Salgaocar coach Anthony Levino Pereira, popularly known as ‘Khambo’, was shocked with the losing streak that wiped out Goa’s hopes. “It is a least-expected result. I am sad with such an exit, that too at the half-way stage of the championship,” said Pereira, who was Goa’s coach twice in the recent past. He hoped that the preparations for the next championship would start in right earnest now.
Analysing the Santosh Trophy disappointments of the recent past, former GFA President Elvis Gomes labelled the latest exit as ‘ the worst’. “Three matches, three losses…it’s Goa’s worst exit performance in the recent years,” shouted Gomes, who was the first Member-Secretary of Goa Football Development Council (GFDC) set up in 2012 with the avowed objective of developing football at the grassroot level in every corner of the state, much thanks to the vision of late, former Goa’s Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
GFDC Chairman, Padma Shri and Arjuna Awardee Brahmanand Shankhwalkar felt that the planning and preparations for Santosh Trophy must begin around the launch of the football season in the state.
Among a host of reactions following Goa’s failure to stay alive in the hunt to make it to Santosh Trophy semi-finals, Brahmanand put the focus on scouting and grooming players under the expertise of neutral and independent coaches. “Especially for the Santosh Trophy, form a cell comprising a senior Technical Director and chief coach, before the kick-off of the next season. These experienced officials may not be part of any team in Goa Pro-League. They will observe the performance of players as well as their discipline. It does not matter if results this time were not in our favour. Let us strive to get up, not just by training but also mentoring the players too,” opined former India goalkeeper Brahmanand.
“I don’t blame coach Norbert Gonsalves at all. But the point I am making is that, have a coach next time from amongst very, very senior former players and let that coach watch the Pro League matches of every team to study the performance of the players, their mental toughness, etc. It is not necessary that only a Pro-League club coach has to be in-charge of the Santosh Trophy team. That apart, players also need to show that high-level of hunger to put up a brave fight as it is the pride of the State which is at stake,” asserted Brahmanand.
Former India forward and captain, and Arjuna Awardee, Bruno Coutinho expressed disappointment at yet another failed campaign. “Losing three games in-a-row means something is going wrong. I cannot specify the reason why our fortunes are declining in Santosh Trophy. I believe the most important thing is that once the players are selected to represent the State, they should perform. The National championship is a competition of pride for every State. It is very sad that Goa will not make it to the semi-finals,” said Bruno.
For former India striker Francis D’Souza, who had the distinction of playing in the Kolkata League, long-term planning is the only solution to arrest the Goa’s Santosh Trophy decline. “Planning and preparations inclusive of practice matches are the crucial aspects in putting together a winning combination. A coach is not a magician to make a team click in few days. Actually, the need of the hour should be to have the nucleus of the team to come together and practice about two to three months ahead of the championship because it’s not enough to know the players on the field only but off the field as well. And to make matters worse today, we don’t have any player with that much-needed individual brilliance necessary to change the complexion of the game,” stated Francis.
Ex-Goa coach Peter Valles wondered whether more time spent on preparations, could have made a world of difference. “The players might have not had enough quality time for the preparations. They should have played some more practice matches before going. Anyhow, they qualified from the preliminary round. If they had enough time to prepare, perhaps they would have done better. We cannot blame coaches for this, it depends basically on preparations,” said Valles.
Elvis Goes, former coach of Vasco Sports Club, analysed the problem which Goa has been facing since some time now. “Firstly, it is very disappointing to hear the news that Goa were eliminated at the nearly half way stage at the group stage to determine the semi-finalists of the group. We cannot expect different results if we continue in the same vein with our football development, scouting and selections, training programme and preparations. Time has now come to review and revamp the full process with the sole objective of improving the outcomes and future performances. One of the key factors is to bring in independent scouts and change the way the selection process is conducted. It applies to all selections in all categories, added Elvis.
“I have a simple idea: Break down Goa in different zones for the selection process – have a small competition among these teams, bring in independent scouts to select the best and then appoint a coach who is familiar with Goan style and then let the chips fall where they may,” opined Elvis, who runs a much-acclaimed football academy in Portugal.
President of Saligao SC and former vice-president of Goa Football Association, Tony Remedios dwelt on the scope for all, especially the stakeholders. The urgent need of the hour is for all to come together cohesively and resolve the issue or issues affecting Goa’s performance at Santosh Trophy.
Tony lamented that migrants are slowly displacing Goans, several of them now playing regularly in inter-village tournaments. Surely, there is no reason to stop the new trend as it is also being witnessed in several other fields in Goa. “That leaves us with a message that our Goan boys must hone their skills at the grassroots and also not to leave Goa for greener pastures. However, that’s easily said than done. Even the clubs are signing players from Manipur, Nagaland, Meghalaya and our boys do not get the opportunities they used to get in the past,” observed Tony.
Tony stressed that the youth development programme needs to be fine-tuned to identify talent. The youngsters must play more number of matches and competitions need to spread for three to five months for proper exposure. “They have to pick up the talented boys from an inter-village circuit and help them get into the clubs, or have some Centres of Excellence for these talented ones.”
Tony opined that our football system in Goa needs to be revamped, overhauled, or whatever one may call it, as there is no need to reinvent the wheel. “We need to have thorough professionals with adequate experience and expertise in different fields right from the administration to the technical level to start with. Goa faced the ignominy of losing to Gujarat last year after resounding victories and the then-GFA president Churchill Alemao was questioned. And now, what could be the reason for Goa’s debacle this year down to?” summed up Tony.
