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Sporting Clube de Goa rallied back to hold Guardian Angel SC to a one-all draw in a key encounter of the Goa Pro League at the Duler Stadium in Mapusa earlier today. Micky Fernandes (12’) opened the scoring for Guardian Angel while Francis Dadzie (42’) equalised for Sporting Clube de Goa from the spot.
The Sporting Gaffer Mateus Costa made two changes to the side that beat Vasco SC in the previous game. Daryl Costa and Ganesh Thakur made the cut at the expense of an injured Victorino Fernandes and Harshad Naik. Costa adopted a 4–2–3–1 formation with the Ghanaian Dadzie leading the attack.
The first 10 minutes witnessed a good tempo football from both sides. In the 11th minute Sporting Goa skipper Loveday Enyinnaya gave away a soft free kick at about 35 yards off from the nets. Guardian Angel’s Micky Fernandes came forward and delivered a superb free kick into the nets which left everyone stunned. Sporting Goa took a while to regroup and launch their own offence but things got from bad to worse for the Flaming Oranje when their keeper picked up a silly red card for handling the ball outside the box. Down to 10 men Gaffer Costa was forced to bring out Daryl to get substitute keeper Ravi Kumar in.
With time ticking Sporting Goa players were looking for an inspiration to get back into the game which came in form of Seriton Fernandes’ fantastic run on the right flank which saw the Guardian Anegal defender panic to give away a useless penalty. The Ghanaian forward Francis Dadzie made no mistake to place it beyond Ram Sroop to put things on level terms for the Panjim side. In the added time of the first half Guardian Angel gave away their one man advantage when their defender Sanwil D’Costa made a rash challenge on Seriton to pick up his second yellow and receive his marching order to restore parity on the field.
Crossing over Gaffer Costa introduced his hit man Marcus Mascarenhas hoping to find the nets. Sporting Goa should have taken the lead in the 51st minute when Dadzie unleashed a powerful left footer straight into the hands of Sroop who made a notable stop. Dadzie had two further good opportunities around the hour mark but both were denied by the woodwork. Seriton also found himself at the receiving end of the woodwork’s wrath when his long ranger beat everyone only to be stopped by the crossbar. Even though Sporting Goa dominated the second half completely they failed to crack down a well oiled Guardian Angel defence.
With this draw Sporting Goa stay in third position with 15 points from seven matches while Guardian Angel SC remain in sixth position with 10 points from the same number of matches played.
