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Okoro's goal takes East Bengal into final

East Bengal striker Mike Okoro (centre) and Salgaocar defender Prashant Jaggi in a tussle for the ball in the Durand Cup semifinal match in New Delhi on Wednesday.

NEW DELHI JAN. 8. Mike Okoro's opportunism provided East Bengal the lone goal in a disappointing semifinal against Salgaocar in the Durand football tournament on Wednesday. In Friday's final, East Bengal will take on Army XI.

On another cold day, though brighter than the previous afternoon, football brought out more yawns than shouts at the sparsely filled Ambedkar Stadium. If Salgaocar looked to have the edge in a largely midfield-oriented tussle, it could not find the better openings till the dying seconds of the match.

That chance, created by Jatin Bisht from the extreme right, with a measured cross, might have produced the best goal of the tournament so far, but to the dismay of the Goans, Sunday Seah's brilliant header found the bar. Less than a minute of injury time was left then.

Seah had failed to beat goalkeeper Satish Kumar with another header, early in the second half and was soon booked for an off-the-ball offence against Roy Chowdhury. The Liberian striker was not exactly in his element, but then in the overall perspective when everyone looked rather pedestrian, he looked likely to be the man who could deliver for the Goan side.

That did not happen. But on the other side, one of the foreign recruits did the trick. Like Seah, Okoro was also not at his best, though, on a couple of occasions he did provide perfect crosses that were wasted by his colleagues.

Okoro's goal was, however, a gift from Salgaocar goalkeeper Juje Siddi, defender Prashant Jaggi wrapping it up, so to say. It was a harmless lob from the midfield that Siddi gathered with Okoro nearby and Jaggi shielding. To Jaggi's horror, Siddi dropped the ball. Okoro sensed his chance in a flash, put a foot out to propel the ball out of reach of the goalkeeper and then beat the latter and a scrambling Jaggi to the ball to further toe goalward.

This was an elementary error by the goalkeeper, compounded by Jaggi's hesitancy. But Okoro's opportunism should be applauded. He had sprung a goal out of nothing. Eleven minutes of regulation time remained at that stage.

After Denis Cabral tested Satish Kumar early in the first half, Salgaocar rarely got to the striking area. At the other end, Okoro kicked over the ball when Malsawmtlunga laid a short pass from the right. Later there was one glaring miss by Raju Singh as well before the teams came off for the breather.

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