Dempo pulls off an upset win to enter final

By S. R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI, AUG 26. The fairy tale seemed set to add another glittering chapter. Just 14 minutes remained for the semifinal to end and Sporting Clube de Goa, was leading by a goal. Then came the slip, a dramatic turn around as Dempo SC Goa slotted two goals in 12 minutes to pull off a sensational 2-1 victory in the 24th Federation Cup football tournament at the floodlit Nehru stadium on Sunday. This is Dempo's second entry into the final, the last being in 1997.

``Inexperience, and then we missed the Sudanese Kamal Suliman, who could not be fielded because of groin strain'', said the dejected Sporting coach, Peter Vales, while Armando Colaso, while conceding the rival team's grand show, felt the equaliser turned the match around. ``I feel this win is a bonus for us as we never thought of going this far. Our target is to get back into the National Football League,'' he said and indeed there could not have been a better source of inspiration towards reaching that goal.

`Go all out' was Armando's advice to his boys and it must be said there was not a moment of respite for Sporting defence and goalkeeper Felix d'Souza. As it happens when two outfits are from the same place, strengths and weakness were like open books for the two Coaches.

``We know from experience that Felix is vulnerable to aerial balls,'' said Armanda and in fact he had echoed Vales fears expressed earlier when he said ``he has slipped with aerial balls in the league to Dempo itself.''

Still it was a rousing contest. The crowd was thicker and for a change the arena reverberated with sound of drums, aptly brought by the supporters of both teams. The atmosphere was thus perfect and this reflected in the middle where the cat and mouse game provided an eye-full. If Dempo did all the attacking then Sporting found the moments to counter. So many times did Levy Coelho, Sukdev Arwarde and Mario Soares torment the Sporting end that it was a twist of irony that finally when a goal came it had to be at the Dempo end. Actually it was a slip by goalkeeper Francis Fernandes, who failed to hold on to a Socorino Silveira free kick from just outside the box. As the ball popped out, Francis Andrade charged to boot in (23rd mt).

Dempo did not lose tempo, kept raiding, forcing flag kicks but aside from the ball eluding the rectangle everything happened to raise sighs in the gallery. There was Samir Naik once with a Levy pass targetting a water bottle, kept inches wide of the near post. Samir Naik who was seen everywhere kept the rival area hot with his enterprise, only the team was kept on tenterhooks at breather.

Amazingly, aside from that one moment when Francis under Dempo was rattled and conceded a goal, he was relatively at peace with action increasingly getting glued to the Sporting end. Close to half hour in the second session, Levy a lion-hearted fellow who made light of his abdominal pain, and Soares placed a ball on a platter for substitute Minguel Rodrigues but he shocked his colleagues but kicking it across the goalmouth with Felix at his mercy. Dempo must certainly have missed Alesh Shamaki at this stage. The Nigerian was cooling his heels for earning two yellow cards in previous two matches.

But the miss was not to prove dear. An indirect free kick from the edge of the box after Soares was fouled provided the key and Clifford Miranda sold a prefect dummy for Samir Naik to crash a right footer into the cage. Excitement heightened even as desperate clearances and miscues were give away that Sporting was crumbling under pressure. Dempo only raised its game and minutes later was rewarded handsomely by who else, Levy Coelho.

Even though Sporting inducted Nigerian Chukwuma at this stage, it was Coelho, who stole the thunder away with his perfect run, beating an offside trap to meet a Vincent Pires long diagonal. Felix too charged out but Levy's bravura worked as he beat him to the ball with a nudge. Instantly the hunter had become the hunted as the turf turned into a sea of emotions.

Monday (Semifinal): Mohun Bagan v Mahindra United, 6 p.m.

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