http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=131840
FOOTBALL
Goa reign supreme Pip Maharashtra with a solitary goal to claim West Zone
qualifiers crown Express News Service
Mumbai, May 31: T WO half-chances don't add up to a goal and 45 minutes of
unbridled possession doesn't ensure equal honours on a football field, as
Maharashtra's under-21s found out in their luckless final encounter
against Goa in the west zone qualifiers for the national championship on
Tuesday. Edged out 1-0 at the Cooperage, Maharashtra ran their southern
powerhouses close but had more misses to show than hits in this qualifying
decider. Five chances went abegging, to be precise, on either side of the
break, with no goal to boot in the end.
Goa rode on their fourth-minute strike -- a Samson Fernandes free-kick --
to advance to the main round to be held at Trichy in a week's time.
Smarting from the early setback, the shaky Maharashtra attackers botched
up their first attempt at an equaliser when striker Allwyn Dnyanaprakash's
chip at the quarter-hour mark went over the bar. Anil Pawar's header was
parried from close-range in the next minute and the home team had to
contend with an immediate counter-attack before the teams changed ends.
The Goan forwards, however, contrived to hit both the posts while an
out-of-position Maharashtra keeper made a desperate attempt to regain his
position under the pole.
The 16th minute miss wasn't Allwyn Dnyanaprakash's last brush with a lousy
bout of luck as he was late onto a through ball immediately after the
break and was foiled by Goa's recovering custodian Gerrard D'Mello, the
only man to beat in his moment of despair. Maharashtra's top scorer of the
tournament with seven goals, sadly, couldn't bulge the net when it
mattered the most.
The closest Maharashtra came to getting even on the scores was in the 81st
minute when medio Souvaid Ansari's 45-yarder from in front of the box was
fisted off in line with the crossbar. Ansari had managed to fool the
keeper into going the wrong way, but D'Mello outstretched his left hand to
tap the ball out.
Two minutes later, Anthony Fernandes' floater from the left went kissing
the uprights and Maharashtra trudged off the field defeated five minutes
after that.
For Goa's man of the day, Samson Fernandes, his second match of the
tournament yielded an unlikely goal, for the Vasco defender was roughing
out a post-niggle comeback after a tiresome NFL season.
Why Goa spells goals and success ... And Maharashtra's afterthought
Winning captain Villroy M D'Cruz believes that his team stay true to the
Goan style of soccer and that makes successive teams from the tiny
southern state unbeatable. ''We play the passing game, whatever the
situation,'' he says. Close passes and effective co-ordination are the
hallmarks of all Goan teams, and they don't divert from that basic mantra.
The process of team-building takes a while, and Goa has benefitted from
having played five tournaments prior to landing in Mumbai for the west
zone qualifiers. So, when Maharashtra were still in the process of
selecting their state squad, Goa were locking horns with strong club sides
from around Maharashtra and as far as Tamil Nadu to get into the groove.
Semi-finalists in the last edition of the under-21 nationals, Goa is keen
on laying their hands on the trophy they last won in 2002. Filled with
players who are all on either the junior or senior teams of the six clubs
that played the NFL this year, it starts as a fancied team, anyways.
During the presentations, MDFA secretary Kehar Singh announced that three
age-level teams of Mumbai boys in the under-16, under-18 and under-20
sections would be formed from next season onwards and would participate in
every tournament around the country, they could enter.
