FC Kochin back on winning track

By Our Sports Reporter

KOCHI, MARCH 31. This guy can surely do magic. Back in action after a serving a two- match suspension, Liberian Sunday Seah put FC Kochin back on winning track in the National Football League here on Saturday.

Kochin, which lost its last three matches, defeated Salgaocar (Goa) 2-1 in the 17th round at the Nehru Stadium here.

Sunday, making his debut as the Kochin captain, struck both the goals for the home side, the second off a penalty. Salgaocar put up a strong resistance and narrowed the margin through Nigerian recruit, Tijani Ahmed.

The victory, FC Kochin's ninth, helped it retain the third spot with 32 points while Salgaocar has 23 from 16 games.

Sunday, an allrounder, normally begins a match as a goalkeeper and ends as a striker. Today, to pep up the attack after the three setbacks, he stayed as a forward throughout.

Dancing and dribbling, swaying and sliding, Sunday was clearly at his best today. With lovely ball control, both with head and feet, he weaved his way through the Salgaocar defence. At times, there were three men marking him, but he quickly broke free.

Another Liberian Aaron Cole, who led the side in the last match, gave Sunday good support. The two worked up an impressive combination, feeding each other.

It paid rich rewards too, in the very second minute of the match. Before Salgaocar could settle down, Sunday struck. The goal followed a corner kick and K.A.Anson, making his NFL debut for Kochin, fed Aaron Cole. Aaron attempted to trap the ball with his thigh but it came to Sunday. Sunday almost delayed a second before slowly placing the ball in with a shrewd header.

The second goal was a lucky one. There was a small goalmouth melee towards the end of the first session. Salgaocar captain Franky Baretto accidentally `handled' the ball as Aaron Cole made an attempt at the goal, inside the box. The referee awarded a penalty, and Sunday converted it with another wily shot.

Sunday almost made it a hat-trick in the second half. Dribbling the ball from foot to foot, he beat a defender easily but his attempt was collected by the goalkeeper Juje Siddi.

Despite the superb Sunday show, the home boys were forced to sweat to hang on to their lead. Salgaocar, despite losing three of its stars, Jules Alberto, Alvito D'Cunha and Rocky Fernandes, put up a good fight. There was a lively combination between Climax Lawrance, Christian Okoye and Tijani Ahmed. Salgaocar, the Goan league champion, also came up with some superb counters which had the Kochin defence sweating, but was unlucky for a major part of the match. And FC Kochin led 2-0 at the break.

After a few unsuccessful attempts, Tijani reduced the margin in the 69th minute after receiving a pass from Augustine Rodriques.

FC Kochin next plays defending champion Mohun Bagan in Kolkata on April 4 while Salgoacar meets Zee Churchill Brothers at home on April 8.

F. C. Kochin's P. B. Babu (left) and Salgaocar's Dharmajit Singh race to take control of the ball in the National Football League match at Kochi on Saturday.

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Section  : Sport
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