Vasco go down to Sporting Goa in AWES Cup

Published at :September 4, 2017 at 7:40 PM

Modified at :September 4, 2017 at 7:40 PM

Vasco Sports Club suffered a 5-1 defeat at the hands of Sporting Clube de Goa in the 1st AWES Cup 2017 match played at Duler football Stadium earlier on Monday.

Vasco started without two of key players, Micky Fernandes and Sherwin Lobo due to injuries. At the other hand Sporting coach named newly signed Peter Carvalho, Girish Naik and keeper Ozen Silva in the starting XI. While their start striker Victorino Fernandes was back in the orange jersey after spending a season with I-League side Mumbai FC.

Sporting started on a positive note and enjoyed better possession over the ball in the first 10 minutes as the opponents struggled to take control of the ball. in between these, Sporting’s Mauvin Borges made a darting run from his own half and went for the glory from the edge of the box but his powerful strike was brilliantly saved by the keeper Suresh Lamani. Vasco replied them with a quick counter when winger Anil Gaonkar dribbled past two in his run from the half way line and tried his luck from the wing but his shot hit the crossbar and came back into the play.

Anil’s first move proved to be the trigger to activate Vasco’s offensive play as next 10 minutes belonged to the Port Towners. However, they could manage to break Sportings defense in any of their moves.

It was Sporting who broke the deadlock just before the half hour mark. Victorino tapped in from the close off Ganesh Thakur's parallel pass in the box with Vasco keeper Suresh out of position. Sporting were back on track as once again, men in orange tried to take control over the game with better possession and numerous attacks. In one of these, Sporting should have doubled their lead when Mauvin was in the action with just Vasco keeper to beat in a one-on-one situation but the sporting lad shot wide from the close.

The Port side club once again tried to organize their play by keeping the ball but their moves did not last long as Sporting’s defense were too strong to break until the half time.

Vasco coach Eban Misquita brought in Minesh Kunkolkar and Steven Colaco replacing Savio Dias and Anil at the half time to sharpen them in the attack.

Just after the changing over, Sporting had almost scored the second through George D’Souza’s perfect free-kick but Vasco keeper brilliantly fisted it over the crossbar.

Just 10 minutes after the resumption of play, Vasco found their equalizer through Beneston Barreto. The front man made a clinical touch-in to Franky Oliveira’s diagonal pass in the box. However, they could not manage to hold Sporting for a long as within next 15 minutes Sporting went back into the lead through Victorino. The striker dribbled past keeper Suresh in the box and calmly placed the ball into the net making it 2-1 for the Flaming Orange.

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Pumped up by the goal, Sporting scored three more goals in the last 10 minutes. First, Victorino completed his hat trick when he easily cut past two defenders while entering the box and beat the goalkeeper in his last touch. A few minutes later, substitute Marcus Mascarenhas scored from close the close, off George’s cross from the left. While George’s powerful free-kick from the edge of the box which hit the horizontal bar and finished in the nylons making it 5-1 for the Panjim based club.

Vasco coach Misquita was disappointed after his side suffered a big marginal defeat in the opening match as he said “It was defensive errors that cost us. We need to improve in that department.”