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Second half goals from Victorino Fernandes and Boima Jerry Karpeh were enough to give Sporting Clube de Goa a 2-0 win over Sesa Football Academy in the Goa Pro League at the Duler ground in Mapusa on Tuesday afternoon.
“I was happy with the overall performance. I felt our defence did well to create 2 against 1 situations to snuff out any danger. Our forward line was initially attacking to deep in the first half, but after the break the ball was getting pushed in the right places and we came out with the desired result,” stated Sporting Goa Coach Oscar Bruzon.
Victorino Fernandes was made captain for the day in the absence of regular captain Mathew Gonsalves.
Midway through the first half, Sporting Goa’s Keenan Almeida tried an ambitious long range chip, which was acrobatically kept out at the last moment by the Sesa custodian. Seven minutes before the break, Victorino laid the ball back for Jovel Martins who crossed it for Boima Jerry Karpeh who in turn cushioned the ball towards Mauvin Borges and his spectacular volley was saved by the Sesa goalkeeper.
At the other end, defender Gonzalo Neila slipped, allowing Sesa Football Academy’s Chikwudi Chukwuma to race in on goal, but the angle was to acute as his shot raced passed the far post. Just before half time, Jerry tricked his way into the box and set up Victorino, but he failed to connect properly and the ball sizzled past the post.
Less than two minutes after the interval, the Flaming Oranje took the lead after captain Victorino tapped in a cross from Jovel Martins. In the 60th minute, Sporting Goa’s Victorino headed the ball down into the path of Jerry who took a touch before blasting into the top corner his 11th goal of the season. Four minutes later, the Sesa goalkeeper pulled off a one handed save to stop a Pratesh Shirodkar power packed free kick.
Sesa finally thought they had a break through when Chikwudi Chukwuma’s shot trickled off a team mate and ended up in the back of the net, but the referee disallowed the goal as when the ball deflected off the player he was in an offside position.
Sporting Goa finished the first stage of the league in second position with 22 points, just a point behind the leaders, while Sesa completed their outings with 13 points from nine matches and are placed fifth.
