The Hindu : Sport / Football : Right start for Sporting Clube

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006
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Right start for Sporting Clube

Principal Correspondent

KOLKATA : Sporting Clube de Goa made a perfect start to its Federation Cup campaign, beating the Indian Army outfit 4-0 in the first pre-quarterfinal match here at the Salt Lake Stadium on Tuesday.

Nigerian striker Ernest Jeremiah, Nicolau Borges scored a goal each while Harmanjot Khabra struck twice.

The nature of the contest became clear in the very first move when Jeremiah did the finishing act reaching a short lob after Nicolau Borges had cleared the Army defence with a brilliant flick. The Goan team went into the lead with the match barely 20 seconds old.

A brief moment of lull followed the early goal. Harmanjot doubled the lead in the 31st minute reaching a provision from Borges, who turned out to be the livewire in the Sporting's attack format.

Alert midfield

Sporting's strong showing was buoyed by an alert midfield that kept all the attack routes active. Nicholas Rodrigues, who played as the game-maker, set up the team's third goal in the 38th minute. Khabra, who got himself at the end of the scoring process for the second time in succession, finished the Rodrigues provision.

A 3-0 cushion in the first session did not make Sporting defensive following the change of ends. In the 55th minute, Borges justifiably got his name in the scoring list as he finished a neat cross from Jeremiah.

Salgaocar wins

Meanwhile, Salgaocar SC gave favourite JCT an early ticket back home beating the latter by a solitary goal in the fourth pre-quarterfinal match. Midfielder Francis Fernandes headed home the match-winner in the 58th minute.

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