The Hindu : Sport / Football : Dudu leads from the front

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, May 05, 2005

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Sport - Football

Dudu leads from the front

Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE: A few hours before the kick-off of his team's ONGC NFL encounter against State Bank of Travancore (SBT) here on Wednesday, the Sporting Clube de Goa skipper Dudu Omagbemi told this paper: "What really I like about our club this season is the team spirit, and all of us know precisely what we are supposed to do."

Then he and his boys showed at the Corporate Stadium what he meant by that, as they scored a fluent 2-0 win and did no harm to their chances of a maiden title in India's premier football league.

And Dudu led from the front, scoring the team's first goal — the second was netted by Fernandes Bibiano — and walking away with the `Man of the Match' award. It was the Nigerian's 21st goal this season.

The equation

We may not be able to say yet with certainty that Sporting would emerge the league champion, though it's one of the three contenders, but we can say with a fair amount of confidence that its skipper will be the topscorer. He has a lead of nine goals over his nearest rivals — Yusuf Yakubu of Churchill Brothers and Ranty Martins Soleye of Dempo.

Dempo is, in fact, also Sporting's main challenger for the title, following defending champion East Bengal's shock defeat to Mahindra United in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Sporting, with just a match left to play, now leads the table with 45 points from 21 games, four points ahead of Dempo, which, however, has three matches in hand.

East Bengal, with two games left, has 40 points. Indeed, the ninth NFL could well go down to the wire. While those three teams are engaged in the exciting tussle for the top slot, SBT has virtually ensured it would finish at the bottom. It has 15 points, with just one game in hand.

More misery for SBT

In a miserable season, the bankmen had a most miserable game on a humid afternoon. Rarely have they been outplayed as they were by the vastly superior Sporting. The Goans were clearly

better in every department of the game. They attacked with conviction, defended with great confidence bordering on arrogance and dictated the pace of the game to their liking — and much to the dislike of their rival.

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