Sporting Clube de Goa lift AWES Cup

Published at :September 15, 2018 at 6:16 PM

Modified at :December 13, 2023 at 1:01 PM

(Courtesy : Adam Godinho)

Clive Miranda was awarded the Promising Player of the Tournament.

Clive Miranda scored the winner in the dying minutes as Sporting Clube de Goa edged past Salgaocar FC 1-0 in the AWES Cup 2018 finals played under the floodlights at Tilak Maidan, earlier on Saturday.

Sporting who had defeated Dempo in the semi-final had two changes as Glan Martins and Clive Miranda were back in the Mateus Costa’s XI, whereas, Salgaocar coach Levino Pereira once again chose to go with the same lineup which defeated ONGC FC in the last four.

Though both the teams started on an attacking note, it was only in the 25th minute when Salgaocar came close to scoring as they were awarded a freekick at the edge of the box but their skipper Mackroy Peixoto’s shot went just wide.

This was the only potent attack by the Green Brigade in the entire session as Sporting were the dominant side in the rest of the session. They had an opportunity to open their tally in the 28th minutes when Brandon Gomes found Cajetan Fernandes with a low cross in the box but the midfielder saw his shot flung high from close.

Flaming Orange came with another attack in the 37th minutes when Assumption Soares tried to find Victorino Fernandes with a long ball but Salgaocar defender Daniel Gomes intercept it for a corner. They had another great opportunity from the resultant corner but this time Peter Carvalho’s goalbound header was blocked by Salgaocar last line for a safety.

Sporting skipper Victorino should have taken his side into the lead in the 41st minutes when he was fed with a pinpoint long ball by Quan Gomes but the forward could not control his shot from inside the box as it went just over the crossbar.

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It was just 10 seconds in the second session when Sporting skipper Victorino tried his luck from the top with an overhead kick, only to see it go wide.

At the other end, Salgaocar winger Denil Rebello made a darting run on the left wing and curled in the box but his teammates failed to reach the ball. A few minutes later, they had a golden opportunity when Denil came with another fluent pass to Devendra Murgaonkar in the box who nicely chested it down before blasting it but his strike missed the target by a whisker.

When it was looking like, the match will progress to the penalty shootouts, Sporting defender Clive scored the winner in the 86th minutes as he made no mistake to head the ball home from close off Assumption’s well-taken corner.

In the added time, Sporting were reduced to ten-men as Quan Gomes was sent off for a decent.

IM Vijayan played in the legends match in Goa on Saturday (Adam Godinho)

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Before the finals, there was a Legend’s match played between IM Vijayan XI (Green Legends) and Salvador Fernandes XI (Blue Legends) where Bramhanand Sankhwalkar came off the bench to score the winner for the Blues in the dying minutes of the match.

It was a treat to eyes to see the Indian football Legends like IM Vijayan, Renedy Singh, Bramhanand, Bruno Coutinho, Samir Naik, Climax Lawrence, Micky Fernandes, Clifford Miranda, Salvador Fernandes, Mario Soares, Gokuldas Nagvenkar, Mathew D’Costa and many more playing once again on the Goan soil. The famously known as the black diamond of the Indian football, Vijayan was seen with the same passion on the pitch, while Renedy, Lawrence, Miranda, Naik and Micky produced some excellent play throughout the regular time to entertain the fans present in the stadium despite hot climate.