Team Herald
sports@herald-goa.com
MAPUSA: Sporting Clube de Goa had to wait for the penalty shootout where they registered a 5-2 victory via tie-breaker over Sesa FA in the Goa Football Association’s Charity Match, played at Duler Stadium, here, on Saturday.
Sesa FA opened their account in the 37th minute through Sankalp Kankonkar, while Francisco Fernandes equalised for Sporting Clube in the 82nd minute.
Sporting Clube did have better of ball exchanges and made a couple of inroads inside the rival territory but Biswa Darjee twice failed to direct his strike and then his header inside the goal frame.
At the other end, in the 37th minute, a 25-yard rasping shot by Sesa FA’s Sankalp Kankonkar popped off Sporting Clube’s custodian Siddharth Rana gloves and the ball rolled into the goal 1-0. Three minutes later, Sesa FA almost doubled their lead but a strike by Sachidanand Satelkar in a goalmouth melee hit defender for a corner.
Sachidanand was once again unluckily as his shot on the run missed the target narrowly.
On crossing ends, in the 59th minute, Sporting Clube’s substitute goalkeeper Abhimanyu Singh brought a point blank save from Sesa FA’s Velito Rocha.
Later, a long dip cross by substitute Klusner Pereira at the far end saw Dhiraj Chouhan a bit late to connect the ball home.
However, finally, in the 82nd minute, Sesa FA’s custodian managed to thwart Sporting Clube’s Doyal Alves in one to one situation and the ball rolled to unmarked Francisco Fernandes, who slammed the ball into the net 1-1.
With the match ending in a 1-1 draw, the tie-breaker was implemented.
For the winners Doyal Alves, Myron Fernandes, Selwyn Miranda and Klusner Pereira shot all on target, while only Clive Miranda scored for Sesa FA.
GFA President Caitano Fernandes presented the winners Charity Match trophy to Sporting Clube de Goa Captain Joyner Lourenco in the presence of GFA Secretary Adler D’Cruz, GFA Executive Members Patwin Fizardo and Johnny Pereira and other digintaries.