Football: All eyes on Maharashtra-Goa tie

By S.R. Suryanarayan

LUDHIANA, NOV. 2. Football action in the men's section shifts from Jalandhar to a better ambience at the floodlit Guru Nanak Dev stadium where the semifinals get underway on Wednesday, with one match under floodlights.

For the four semifinalists, Maharashtra, Goa, Punjab and Services, the tune up now is for that `gold medal' which is the prize for the champion in the National Games. As the only team, which won all its league matches, holder Maharashtra stands tall, while Services appears to be the weak link among the four. There is reason for this view, stemming from the reaction of the coaches of the other two contenders.

``We would have preferred playing Services'', Goa Coach Norbert Gonsalves had said after the disaster against Punjab when his team let in two goals at the very end of the match to lose its number one place in the Group league. ``It is good that we are meeting Services'', said Jagir Singh, the Punjab Coach clearly happy that his team had avoided Maharashtra.

That then is the portfolio of Services, which had its last best performance at the national level in 1985 when it had reached the semifinals in the Santosh Trophy championship held at Kanpur, something Coach Stanley Rozario was quick to mention at the end of that infamous match against Karnataka. May be that 4-1 `win' then, which a few members of the Karnataka team on grounds of anonymity admitted was arranged, at Jalandhar's Guru Gobind Stadium was what finally brought Services into the last four ahead of even Bengal.

But, Bengal was not even a shadow of its known squad and had lost to Services. Whether all this would help inspire the Services to put up a bright show, only time will tell.

If Punjab plays the kind of forthright football that upset Goa, against Services then the local fans are in for a goals-treat. Clearly with the likes of Rampal, Jaswinder, Saini and Hardip Gill, to name only a few, Punjab should storm into the final. However, it will be the Maharashtra-Goa tie which should be closer and befit even a `final'.

Both teams have tenacious performers in Tomba Singh and Sushil Karthak for Maharashtra and Sukhdev Arwade and Lazarus Fernandes for Goa, apart from an enterprising bunch in each. Still what should worry Norbert is the Goan team's tendency to buckle under pressure.

Against Tamil Nadu it actually escaped with a 5-4 win from a commanding 5-1 lead at one stage and against Punjab it was goalless till the 82nd minute before two goals in the space of four minutes brought defeat. There lies the key then for Maharashtra which on paper appears to have relatively lesser flaws but lots of resources.

The semifinal matches are expected to trigger the football frenzy here.

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