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Sporting Clube de Goa defeated Vasco SC 3–0 in a crucial Goa Pro League encounter to secure the runners up spot with a match to spare. Subhasish Bose (13’) opened the score line for the Flaming Oranje while Marcus Mascarenhas (32’) added the second. Towards the closing stages Victorino Fernandes (89’) signed off with an incredible goal to seal the victory for the Men from Panjim.
Sporting Goa head coach Mateus Costa made two changes to the side that won against SSC of Cavelossim last week. Subhasish Bose came in place of Ponif Vaz while the young Fayaz Shaikh made his maiden start between the sticks replacing the veteran Ravi Kumar.
Sporting Goa were the dominant side right from the start as Francis Dadzie and Mauvin Borges breached the Vasco SC defence very early in the match. Around 10 minutes into the game Avrhishto Fernandes made a good run winning a free kick at about 30 yards away from the net. Cajetan Fernandes delivered a perfect ball finding the tall defender Subhasish Bose who made no mistake heading it past the Vasco keeper giving Sporting Goa the lead.
Sporting Goa should have doubled the lead in the 23rd minute when Harshad Naik set up Dadzie with a fantastic cross but the latter shot it inches wide. However it didn’t take too long for Sporting Goa to double their lead as Marcus Mascarenhas made a stunning run in the mid to create a wall pass movement with Cajetan Fernandes who’s inch perfect pass was chipped in by the former to make it 2–0. Vasco’s only real opportunity came in the 35th minute when their striker Francis Alves Kouassi shot the ball high up after getting hold of a good cross from Jaison Vaz. In the final 10 minutes Mauvin and Dadzie created at least four promising moves but failed to convert either of them courtesy some heroic saves by Jerson Pereira between the sticks for Vasco. The score stayed 2–0 in favour of Sporting Goa at the break.
Crossing over gaffer Costa introduced Alber Gonsalves, George D’Souza and Victorino Fernandes in quick succession trying to wrap things up early. Though Alber and Mauvin combined well the Vasco defence was determined not to leak any more goals and kept them in check for most of the half. At the other end once again a good combination between the Vasco skipper Jaison Vaz and Francis Kouassi saw the former come close to scoring on two occasions but the young Fayaz Shaikh’s vigilance kept the ball away from the Sporting Goa net. In the 73rd minute Vasco again missed a good opportunity when a quick free kick by Jaison found Olvin Cardozo in a striking distance but the latter made a mess of the opportunity.
Sporting Goa signed off in style when the second half substitute Alber Gonsalves made a good run on the left to find Victorino Fernandes in the box, the latter did a fantastic work beating two defenders while placing the ball perfectly past the port town keeper making it 3–0 for Sporting Goa.
With this win Sporting Clube de Goa have collected 42 points from 19 matches and also secured the runners up spot in the Goa Pro League 2016-17 with a match to spare.
