MARGAO
Goa powered by two goals by attacking midfielder Necio Maristo Fernandes eased past Kerala 2-0 in the 77th National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy Group A final round at Golden Jubilee Stadium, Yupia in Arunachal Pradesh, on Friday.
Whilst head coach Charles Dias would have wanted that win to infuse confidence within the setup, they started this game in attacking fashion. Goa were toying with Kerala defence and the Goans were aggressive throughout the game after the first half.
With the win, Goa moved to second on the table with four points, two behind leaders Services who beat Arunachal Pradesh earlier in the day. Having failed to build on to their 3-1 win over Assam on the opening day, Kerala dropped to third place with three points. It was the second time Goa got the better of Kerala this season after a 1-0 group stage win in Benaulim back in October.
The Goa defence comfortably negotiated whatever Kerala had to offer and in the end it was a comfortable victory
Kerala were the ones to get off the blocks quicker and almost made a crisp start when Abdu Raheem K, who opened the scoring in the previous win over Assam hit the post with a header in the third minute. It was skipper Nijo Gilbert's cross which set up that chance as he remained the focal figure of Kerala's attacks until an unfortunate hamstring injury in the 21st minute which meant that he had to be stretchered out and replaced by Akbar Sidhique.
Unlike in their thrilling 3-3 draw with Arunachal Pradesh in the opener, Goa took things slowly and gradually grew in confidence as the game progressed. There was a stroke of luck involved in their opening goal in the 44th minute as a loose ball fell onto the path of Necio Fernandes who had no one but goalkeeper Sidharth R Nair to beat and he did so with ease off a through pass from Shridhanath Gawas.
The second half panned out similarly. Despite Kerala launching a wave of attacks, a lapse of concentration in defence caused Necio to capitalise yet again and seal the win for Goa. In the 58th minute, a diagonal ball from Shridharnath Gawas beat the Kerala off-side trap and picked out Laximanrao Rane, who could not believe his luck with the free space he had around him. With a quick touch, he deceived Sidharth and passed the ball to Necio, who slipped it into the empty net for his third goal in two games.
Kerala spent the remaining half an hour pushing hard to get something from the game. Abdu Raheem had a couple of good opportunities - first, his powerful left-footed strike from outside the box was palmed away by Antonio Inacio da Silva, and then he flicked a header wide after an inviting cross from Riswanali Edakkavil. The substitute created another fine chance with a looping cross in the 78th minute but Sajeesh E could only find the side netting from six yards out as Goa held on for the clean sheet.
GFA president Dr Caitano Fernandes, and GFA executive member Custodio Fernandes cheered the team and after the break especially Dr Fernandes motivated the team with pep talks.
Goa head coach Charles expressed his satisfaction with the team's performance as they secured a win in the championship.
"I really was pleased with the consistency. It's not an easy tournament because there are some teams fighting for the top four but you play them and do a good job. I was really proud of the performance in the match not an easy opposition," said Dias.
"That was the priority. You get an opportunity like this and you got to take it and so it sets us up nicely. We have time now to set up our own program. We will have a good plan in place and we want to peak at the right time," Dias added.
"We are proud of each and every member of the team including the support staff," said Dias.
