Sporting Club de Goa stuns East Bengal

By S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI, AUG. 19. An unknown team till the other day, Sporting Club de Goa became the crowd's favourite on Sunday when it organised the biggest coup in the on going Federation Cup tournament by stunning fancied East Bengal, 1-0, in a pre- quarterfinal match at the floodlit Nehru Stadium here.

The diminutive Alex Colaco may have looked funny in his oversized jerseys and shorts, but the linkman became a hero when his 30- yard long diagonal directed to the East Bengal goal- keeper proved to be more than a harmless floater when Sangram Mukherjee collected the ball and inexplicably dropped only to retrieve it after it had crossed the goal-line. The damage had been done.

And what the Goan team did from that 52nd minute gain was one Herculean exercise in defending it. And how it did it overcoming one raid after another, including a sitter that East Bengal missed !. Adversity came in loads for the glamour team, the current National Football League champion as it made its exit.

Without I.M. Vijayan and Jo Paul Anchery if anyone felt East Bengal was weak, then all that evaporated from the kick off with attack coming in waves to the Goan end. But one of the standout performances for Sporting Goa came in the defence area where players like Kannan Priolkar, Alex Colaco, Nicholas Silveira and Soccorino played their hearts out. They may have looked clumsy in their clearance but did their job of ensuring that East Bengal did not have an easy look at their citadel.

Africans Omolaja and Ally Mayay repeatedly stole in stealthily with Deependu Biswas always at handy distance. Except for the 42nd minute faux pas when Omolaja found himself one to one with goal-keeper Felix D 'souza and still missed, Sporting was able to keep danger away.

The trend did not change after the breather. If anything East Bengal looked sharper. Ally Mayay had the chance of his life in the very first minute to cap a solo but with Felix up to the fringe of the box the Tanzanian tried too wide a angle and the ball took the latter's finger on way out. Then came the stunner much against the run of play.

A long centre, that was all Alex had in his mind hoping that Peter Pereira or Francis to meet it if possible. But the ball went deeper and for what should have been an easy collection, he dropped it and that was it, as it turned out, sounded the death knell for his team.

As is its wont, East Bengal went all out. Fouls became common as the frenetic pace set up led to frequent interruptions. Each visit to the Goan end instantly had a crowd of players waiting to strike even as a handful of Goans did everything to thwart that. The contest extended to five minutes of injury time. Tension mounted even as excitement rose among the spectators. Everyone knew which team was being backed and the underdogs Goans gave their reputation a big shot in the arm but not before Omolaja was to miss one more sitter, a header to the cross-piece.

Agragami forges ahead

Surprise is the essence of any attack. Sandip Das was to provide that. A hidden man for a long while, he struck at the opportune moment and what better way to do it than dodging past three defenders before skidding the ball in for the match-winner. Tollygunge Agragami, Kolkata thus ended Bangalore HAL's run and earned a quarterfinal slot.

It was easily one of the best goals that this venue has seen. But then for a contest steeped in tactics and styles the quality goal seemed fitting enough. Coach Amal Dutta is known for his unconventional thinking but he is none the worse for it. What his boys displayed mirrored his thinking. Blended into the elaborate build up in attack and also the fall back to tighten the defence was the provision for the surprise element. In fact when the Kenyan Moses Oira, Mehtab Hossain, Khentang and Surajit Das repeatedly came into the rival area with varying passing bouts, the expectation was for one of them to deliver the goods. Such, in fact, was also the domination of the Kolkata side, standing second at the moment in the league back home. But once the rival defence became familiar with the set pattern came Sandip to provide the jolt.

Known for their fast movements and attack which stem from clever long balls, the Bangalore outfit, which has just qualified for the next season's NFL had to spend much time fortifying its defence. Goal-keeper Gumpe Rime had a tough run straightaway, negotiating Oira or Khentang and then once doing a virtual acrobatic fall and rise, thwarting the two at close range. He had few occasions to watch the ball whizzing past. This trend put the brakes on HAL enterprise.

Nonetheless on occasions when Vijayakumar and Dayanand as also Sunil could break the shackles there were good reasons for Tollygunge to worry. If Tollygunge was to effectively clip HAL wings then the reason lay in the way it left the Bangalore team struggling for order with the passes failing to prolong beyond one or two players. For the Kolkata side players like Sasthi Duley, whose speed and control deserve special mention, Oira and later the Nigerian Adeyeri had helped drive holes into the rival defence.

The breakthrough came a minute past the hour. A long ball from far side with a clutch of Tollygunge players deep in HAL territory, brought Sandip Das to the front. With a canny run, the ball close to his legs, Sandip sold dummies to William, Santhosh Kiran and Vinod Kumar before skidding the ball past a charging goal-keeper Gumpe Rime. Tollygunge still had a task of withstanding the sparks of brilliance of Vijayakumar who once twisted a free kick over the human-wall needing Sandip Nandy to sway and punch the ball away.

Monday's matches: Mahindra United vs. ITI (4.15 p.m.); Salgaocar vs. Punjab Police (6.30p.m.).

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