Sporting Clube round off on a high

Written by NT Network

Wednesday, 16 December 2009

MAPUSA: Buoyed by the return of their coach Vishwas Gaoncar, Sporting Clube de Goa finished their Kingfisher Pro League campaign on a high with a facile 2-0 win over Sesa Football Academy, Sirsaim in their last round encounter at Duler grounds, here Tuesday.

The former Sesa FA coach, ringed in several changes into the starting line-up giving the likes of Steven Fernandes, Freiman Peixoto and Nicolas Rodrigues opportunities. And the coach’s tactics proved noteworthy as goals on either side of the halves from Nathaniel Amos and Steven sealed an important win for the ‘Flaming Oranje’, who now shift their focus to the Federation Cup.

In a fast paced encounter, Sporting began the match on a bright note with the lethal Nigerian Nathaniel Amos causing all the problems for the Sesa back line.

In the 11^th minute, Amos, after latching on to a ball from Freiman, almost stunned the academy side, but the upright came in the way to deny the lanky striker.

However, Sporting finally got the breakthrough in the 19^th minute, through Amos. Nicolas Rodrigues’ corner was headed into the danger zone by Rovan Pereira and the Nigerian made no mistake to give his side a deserved lead.

Sesa were totally off-colour and their best chance of the match came in the 31^st minute, but medio Inacio Colaco, set up by a Nicolau Colaco free-kick, failed to find the Sporting nets.

Minutes before the breather, Nathaniel almost had a brace, but this time the Nigerian failed to get his strike on target.

The second session got off to an explosive start with both sides creating some enterprising moves. Sporting winger Freiman came up with some fine crosses from the left flank which almost got his team the second goal, first Sesa defender Bruno Fernandes almost headed into his own goal and then Rojen Singh nodded tamely into the hands of the rival keeper.

Sesa were finding it hard to maintain their usual flair and were dealt a severe blow in the 58^th minute.

The Sesa defence failed to deal with a goalkick from Sporting keeper Luis Baretto and Steven Fernandes, a former Sesa graduate, made no mistake in doubling his side’s advantage, 2-0.

The last half hour of play saw Sesa pile on tremendous pressure on the Sporting rearguard but custodian Luis and defender Mathew Gonsalves came out with some standout performances to thwart the academy lads time and again. Sesa substitute H Kigen, who replaced Inacio, often found his way into the Sporting citadel but found it hard to get the better of an exceptional Luis, under the Sporting bar.

Source: navhindtimes.com

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