TEAM HERALD
MARGAO: Verna Sports Club showed great understanding and resilience to thrash hosts A.A.De Majorda-Utorda-Calata 4-0 in the finals to win Fr Basilio Andrade memorial inter-village football tournament, at Musson ground, Majorda, Sunday.
Verna led 2-0 at lemon break. The hero of the day was striker Richard Dias, who scored triple strike.
Verna tore the rival defence with well orchestrated raids and dominated the game. Striker Richard, who was on song, put his team into the lead in the 5th minute when he punished the rival goalkeeper with neat finish.
In the 20th minute, Agnelo Rego made it 2-0 when he slotted past the rival goalkeeper with snap shot.
At the other hand, Majorda were subdued and failed to function as a cohesive unit and were completely off colour as they hardly made any worthy moves.
Majorda were expected to come back strongly after change over but Verna defence was vigilant enough to deny them passage inside the penalty box.
The Majorda team were pushed to back foot in the 40th minute when striker Richard rocked the rival citadel with rasping shot keeping the Majorda goalkeeper dazed.
Any thought that Verna would take their foot of the accelerator were wiped away when Richard drove the last nail into rival coffin to register his hat trick five minutes before the long whistle .
Verna took home Rs 30,000 and a glittering trophy while Majorda received Rs 20,000 and a trophy. The following individual prizes were awarded: Best goalkeeper of the finals Richard Fernandes (Verna), Best defender of the finals Vijay Rego (Verna), Best forward of the finals Richard Dias (Verna), Best player of the tournament Navin Mendes (Majorda), Best half of the finals Quan Gomes (Majorda).
Nuvem MLA Francisco Mickky Pacheco was the chief guest and gave away the prizes in the presence of Britto Fernnades, parish priest Utorda Church; Wilfred D’Sa, Zilla member, Nuvem constituency and Majorda sarpanch Moses Vaz.
Earlier, Nelly Rodrigues president of A.A.De Majorda welcomed the guests. In all 16 teams participated.
