Sao Minguel take home Mahabank trophy
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CALANGUTE, SEPT 5
Clube Sao Minguel de Taleigao prevailed over Nagoa Sporting Club 2-1 in the finals of All-Goa inter-village Mahabank Platinum Jubilee Trophy soccer tournament sponsored by Bank of Maharashtra and organised by Adarsh Yuvak Sangh at Calangute Association ground, here on Sunday.
In a match witnessed by a large Sunday crowd, Taleigao shot into the lead off a goalmouth melee in the 5th minute through Gautam Kankonkar. Stung by the reverse, Nagoa would have conceded another goal within minutes but a Caetano try missed the mark narrowly.
Nagoa tried their best to level the score and again came close to scoring in the closing minutes of the first half but a good try by Sanjay sailed over the bar.
Changing over, Taleigao dominated the initial proceedings and consolidated the score in the 13th minute off a direct free kick by Cedric Peixoto whose power-packed shot gave no chance to rival keeper Mandar Parab.
Goaded by success, Taleigao could have made it 3-0 off Jesuvil D’Souza but Venancio effected a goalline save for Nagoa. With time running out, Nagoa went all out and pulled one back through Raghuvir in the 25th minute.
Down 1-2, Nagoa mounted tremendous pressure on Taleigao in the last five minutes and could have levelled the score on a couple of occasions through Raghuvir and Venancio but Taleigao keeper, Francis came to his side’s rescue denying Nagoa the equaliser.
Clube Sao Miguel pocketed Rs 25,000 while Nagoa SC had to be content with Rs 20,000 along with trophies.
Following individual prizes were awarded: Best up-coming player: Lawrence Rodrigues (Nagoa SC). Best defender: Raghuvir Salgaonkar (Nagoa SC). Best half: Caetano Pinho (Clube S.M. Taleigao). First scorer of finals: Gautam Kankonkar (Clube S.M. Taleigao) and best goalkeeper: Francis Fernandes (Clube S.M. Taleigao).
Darryl Pereira, Chairman of Reira Group of Companies and Prakash Shinde, Assistant GM, Goa Region, Bank of Maharashtra were the chief guest and guest of honour respectively, who gave away the prizes along with other invitees. Also present were Padma Kumar Nair, President of Lions Club of Calangute and Executive Member of Calangute Association and Alirio Lobo, Executive Member Calangute Association.
Earlier, President of Adarsh Yuvak Sangh, Eknath Oraskar and other members of the Club introduced the players and officials to the chief guest and other dignitaries. Laxmikant Kinelkar compered the finals and later proposed the vote of thanks.
