MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa began their U-20 TACA Goa campaign with a 2-0 win over Churchill Brothers, at Duler Stadium, Mapusa on Thursday.
The Flaming Oranje scored both the goals in the second session through Daryl Costa (73rd minute) and Harshad Naik (88th minute).
Churchill put up a brave performance in the first session of play but failed to maintain the same consistency in the second half thereby conceded two goals.
It was the Red Machines who initiated the attack but Sporting keeper Sherwin Da Cunha came with some brilliant saves to deny Leander D’Cunha and Sandeep Subba from scoring.
At the other end Churchill keeper Clarence Furtado too came with a fine save to Deny Harshad Naik’s powerful 25-yard freekick.
Minutes later, Daryl Costa on getting hold of the ball ran into the Churchill danger zone only to see keeper Clarence thwart his goal bound shot.
Moments before the lemon break, Sporting’s Prisco Moura saw his powerful effort miss the top corner of the Churchill goal by a whisker.
Crossing over, Churchill received a setback in the 58th minute as they were reduced to ten men after Leander D’Cunha picked up his second yellow card of the match for harsh play.
In the 63 minute, Sporting’s Shawn Noronha almost headed one in when he latched on to a well directed corner from the left, but the ball went out brushing the post. Soon in the 65th minute Daryl served a ball on the platter for Snedden Fernandes, who shot straight into the keepers hands
Sporting took full advantage of the situation and stepped up the attack and after several failed efforts broke the deadlock in the 73rd minute of play when Darul Costa latched onto a pass from Aliston and after covering a few yards lobbed the ball over the onrushing Churchill keeper, 1-0.
Ten minutes later, keeper Clarence did well under the horizontal bar to block Harshad Naik’s effort from close quarters.
With two minutes to go for the final whistle, referee Valentine Fernandes found Churchill’s Joel Fernandes guilty of brining down Sporting Snedden Rodrigues inside the danger zone, thereby pointing to the penalty spot. Harshad made no mistake to put the Oranges up by 2-0.
