The Hindu : Sport / Football : Subhasish Roy is Mahindra’s hero

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Thursday, Sep 13, 2007
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Subhasish Roy is Mahindra’s hero

Vijay Lokapally

Wins the semifinal in a tie-breaker

— Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

In safe hands: Mahindra United goalkeeper Nandy Sandip makes sure that the attempt of Roberto Silva is neutralised.

LUDHIANA: Substitute goalkeeper Subhasish Roy was Mahindra United’s hero as he brought off two saves in the tie-breaker to carry his team past an over-confident Dempo Sports Club in the semifinal of the 29th Hero Cycles Federation Cup at the Guru Nanak Dev Stadium here on Wednesday.

It needed a tie-break to end the deadlock after Mahindra United and Dempo produced a 1-1 finish at the end of the regulation period in a poor match.

Roy saved the kicks by Roberto Silva ‘Beto’ and Ranty Martins while Climax Lawrence, who had a forgettable match, shot over.

Only Chidi converted for Dempo. Mahindra scored through N.P. Pradeep, Harpreet Singh and Djiaja Pierre.

In the final on Saturday, Mahindra will meet East Bengal.

Weak replacement

Mahindra missed Stevan Dias, serving one match suspension.

His measured floaters from the right were the lifeline for Mahindra strikers and Arata Izumi proved a weak replacement.

The intensity was missing despite the significance of the contest even as Dempo made some impressive early inroads.

Roberto Silva ‘Beto’ was not in his element and that put extra pressure on Edeh Chidi and Ranty Martins to try and scatter the defence with their sudden surge.

Clifford Miranda, who gave a splendid account of himself against Churchill Brothers in the last match, was off-colour, just as Climax Lawrence, even though the costliest defence in Indian football — Mahesh Gawli, Samir Naik, John Dias and Valeriano Rebello — managed to stave off the Mahindra attempts; but not for long.

Series of attacks

Dempo triggered off a series of attacks through Martins and Chidi but ran into a stubborn Sukhwinder Singh. On the first occasion, Sukhwinder foiled Chidi after he was put through by Martins. Soon, Sukhwinder hassled Chidi, who tried to make the most of a faulty clearance, only to hit firmly but straight to goalkeeper Sandip Nandy.

Greater faith

Mahindra organised itself and showed greater faith in beginning the moves from its own half than adopting the aerial route. One such move saw Minga Edson Dico setting off alone and releasing the ball in time for an unmarked Manjit Singh, who shot hurriedly but to the left of goalkeeper Abhijit Mondal.

A little later, Dico and Manjit created a similar situation, and this time Dempo succumbed to a blazing strike by the latter. Dico had chipped the ball nicely and Manjit, from the right edge of the box, bludgeoned the ball into the far corner in the 33rd minute.

The Dico-Manjit combination split the Dempo defence again four minutes later but failed to finish — Nandy fisting out Manjit’s right-footer.

A slack Mahindra surrendered its lead in a mere five minutes when against the run of play Dempo hit the equaliser in the 38th minute.

The Mahindra defence was guilty of lethargy when a Martins shot led to a melee and Beto, not the one to spurn such an opportunity, stabbed the ball in past a helpless Nandy.

Lack of cohesion

Mahindra relied in the second half on K. Ajayan and Djiaja Pierre to set up the attacks but lack of cohesion upfront remained a worry.

The defence relied largely on N.P. Pradeep and Dharmaraj Ravanan but it came close to conceding a goal midway through the session when Chidi incredibly put the ball out from inside the small box.

Dempo earned two glorious chances in the dying minutes of extra time but Nandy made outstanding saves off Jerry Zirsanga and Lawrence.

The result:

Mahindra (Manjit Singh, 33rd) beat Dempo (Roberto Silva, 38th).

Tie-breaker: Mahindra (N.P. Pradeep, Harpreet Singh, Djiaja Pierre; Dempo (Edeh Chidi).

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