MAPUSA: Sesa Football Academy secured a hard-fought 2-1 win over Salgaocar FC (Jrs) in the Geno First Division League match organised by GFA, at Sirsaim ground, on Saturday.
Both the teams started well but most of the first session was restricted to midfield play. However, it was the Academy boys who took the lead in the 15th minute when Kunal Salgaonkar banged the ball home after collecting a pass from Ashley Cardozo to make it 1-0 for Sesa.
Down by a goal in the early stage of the match, Salgaocar regrouped and marched on the opponents on many occasion where first, striker Ronaldo Oliveira shot from close was nicely collected by Sesa keeper Roanal Gaunkar. A few minutes later, Ronaldo was brought down just outside the box by Babu Naik to give away the free-kick in the danger area but Salgaocar’s Jawad P.P could not do much from the opportunity as his shot hit the defence wall.
Salgaocar had another chance to level the terms in the 29th minute when Stephen Satarkar set up Ronaldo just outside the penalty box, but Sesa’s Cyrus Noronha came up with a brilliant clearance to push the ball for a corner. Three minutes later, they had the best chance to equalise when Stephen squared the ball to Ronaldo in the box, but the striker saw his placement shot divingly pushed away for a corner by keeper Roanal.
Sesa also had a chance to double their lead but Manjunath Rathod saw his goal bound shots in the 35th and 38th minutes get collected by the keeper Adil Ansari. On the counter-attack, Ronaldo found his teammate Stephen with just keeper to beat but the latter failed to control his shot as the ball went wide for a goal-kick.
At the other end, Sesa added another to their tally in the 42nd minute when Ryan Fernandes’ powerful 30-yard free-kick crashed into the goal beating the Salgaocar keeper Adil to make it 2-0 at the half-time.
Sesa came with two quick attacks just after the resumption of play as first, Rovan Pereira cross from left found Kunal Salgaonkar but his tap from inside the box went out, whereas, in the very next minute, Anil’s shot from close hit Salgaocar defender Shawan Pereira before going out for a corner.
Ronaldo was finally successful to beat the Sesa keeper Roanal in the 65th minute when he covered some ground after receiving a through pass from Stephen and unleashed the powerful grounder which beat the diving Sesa custodian to reduce the margin for the junior Green Brigade.
In the dying minutes of the match, Salgaocar completely took the driver seat as they continuously penetrated Sesa’s defence but their Keeper Roanal came with brilliant saves as he first denied Stephen’s two goal bound shots, while his third shot hit the bottom of the goalpost.
