The Hindu : Sport / Football : Vasco downs ONGC

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Wednesday, Mar 28, 2007
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Sport - Football

Vasco downs ONGC

Principal Correspondent

KOZHIKODE: In a match that didn't excite a sparse crowd much at the Corporation Stadium on a humid Tuesday evening, Vasco scored a 1-0 victory over ONGC in the NFL second division. Keke Ibrahim netted the winner in the 22nd minute.

The Goans were made to work hard for their win by ONGC, whose forwards showed a lot of energy but were consistently off target; they weren't helped by some fine work in the Vasco defence, by Roberto Fernandez, Kamal Thappa and Cedric Piexeto. The Vasco defence had a particularly busy time inside the last quarter of an hour when ONGC was attacking with a lot of vigour, through the hard-working Stanley Cypriaw, Rakshak Naik, Goutam Thakur and Uttam Debnath.

Missed chances

ONGC would look back at this game with regret, as it surely wasn't short of opportunities to score. The team had a chance to take the lead as early as the ninth minute, but Naik's header was too feeble to test the Vasco custodian, Lakshmikanth Kuttimani, who had a good game.

Thirteen minutes later, the Goans went ahead, through a fine solo effort from Keke, who went past a couple of defenders before driving the ball past an advancing ONGC 'keeper, Bilifang Narzary.

ONGC could have equalised before long, but neither Thakur nor Naik could make use of an excellent cross from their captain Amit Mondal from near the left edge of the box. More chances came in ONGC's way in the second half, but Stanley failed to head the ball home off a corner kick in the 54th minute. Nine minutes later, Thakur's header off a cross from Debnath too met with a similar fate.

The Goans too could have added to the tally; they too, like their rival, were guilty of wasting many scoring opportunities.

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