Dempo rout Clube 3-1 in I-League

Panaji: Dempo Sports Club played percentage football to annihilate a resurgent Sporting Clube de Goa 3-1 in an 11th-round I-League clash at the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, on Sunday.

The triumph not only took Dempo to their rightful place at the top of the table, but also gave them a two-point cushion over Mahindra United and Mohun Bagan who are on 20 points each from 11 games. Dempo showed solidity in defence except for that blemish in the 36th minute when Sporting’s Bisheshwar Singh nodded Joseph Pereira’s header off a corner over goalkeeper Kattimani after Mahesh Gawli managed to get his head to the ball. But only just.

Other than that, there was not much that the Dempo defence could be faulted for. With Samir Naik, Valeriano, Mahesh and John Dias forming the back-four, there was little that could go wrong. Not that Kattimani was not called to bring off a few saves. It was just that the attempts were from some brilliant efforts from way outside the box by Bisheshwar and from a few close corners.

Dempo are yet to come into their own. But they showed more than glimpses of their free-flowing passing that helped them stamped their class in Indian football by nailing the national title thrice. The first signs of what was in store came in the 16th minute when they rolled the ball around smoothly while mounting an attack before Clifford Miranda sneaked down the left flank and squeezed the ball from outside the edge of the small box. Unfortunately, Climax’s tap was bravely blocked by Luis Barretto under the bar. Had it not been for some brilliant keeping by this gutsy goalkeeper, Sporting Clube could have suffered a humiliating defeat.

Not that they were outplayed. It was their defence that tended to buckle under pressure. Chhetri and Joaquim Abranches showed they had more than skill to force the pace and shake the defence off their back. Though Kenji Arai played his heart out along with Felip Gomes and Chandrashekar Chinta, it was the errors in defence that made them look brittle and cost them dearly.

Dempo opened their account in the 20th minute when John Dias found Clifford Miranda with a long ball after it deceived defender Felip in flight. The wily left-half pounced on the ball and cleverly tapped over an advancing Barretto.

Nine minutes later, Armando’s lads struck again, this time Abranches finding the net with a brilliantly-executed low volley that beat Barretto all ends up.

Sporting Clube promised to raise the bar once they reduced the margin through Bisheshwar, but when Elijah’s goal was disallowed at the crossover after referee Santosh Kumar realised the Nigerian had handled the ball while finding the net, Clube’s recovery fell flat. And the minute Peter Carvalho — who had yet another brilliant game — nodded home Dempo’s insurance goal in the 62nd minute, it was curtains for Clube. (TNN)

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Added by: Anselm Pio Noronha