Vasco hold Calangute to earn first point in GPL

Schubert scored for the Port Towners, while Josley equalised for the Beachside club.

Calangute Association came from behind to hold Vasco Sports Club to a 1-1 draw in the Goa Professional League match played under floodlights at Duler Stadium earlier today.

Vasco had a poor start to the campaign as they had lost their last two matches to Dempo SC and FC Bardez, while Calangute were high on confidence after winning both their matches against Churchill Brothers and Corps of Signals.

Vasco coach Eban Mesquita made few changes to his side as Leny Fernandes was back in the lineup. He also gave the first start to defender Myran Pereira and Stephen Colaco replacing injured defender Micky Fernandes and Franky Oliveiro and Somnath Patil in the starting XI. While Calangute coach Alex Alvarez also gave the first start to Sanjay Vengurlekar and Rohan Pereira in his side. 

It was a dream start for the Port Towners as they took the lead in the 4th minutes of the match when Clive Coelho found Schubert Pereira with a diagonal pass from the corner, whose powerful out-footer from the edge of the box kissed the inside of the goalpost before entering the goal making it 1-0 for Vasco.

Calangute took some to settle down from the conceding an early goal as Vasco tried to control the match by keeping the ball. However, the beachside had the best chance to level the terms in the 15th minutes when Joston Pereira chose to go for the glory from the distance but Vasco keeper Suresh Lamani brilliantly pushed the net-finding ball for the corner.

The first attempt on the goal brought some confidence in the Calangute as they did not take long to find the equaliser as Josley Dias stylishly headed in from close after receiving a header pass from his teammate Joston making it all square in the 23rd minute.

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Pumped up by the goal, Calangute came out all attacking as they had created many chances before the half-time whistle but first Vasco shot-stopper Suresh made the full stretched save to stop Joston’s sparkling long ranger.

A few minutes later, he once again did the best job to push away Domnic Fernandes’ potent free-kick to keep his side safe. While the dying minutes of the first half witnessed one more compelling move from the beach side as Omakar More perfect through pass found Sanjay in the commanding position to score but Vasco defender Godfray Mascarenhas came up with a clean sliding tackle to push the ball for a corner. 

The second session started with some interesting end-to-end affairs both the teams had equal opportunities to take the lead. N few of these, Calangute almost scored when Bersal Viegas’ header beat the Vasco keeper Suresh and was entering the goal but Godfray once again came to rescue his side as the defender cleared the ball off the goal line.  

Meanwhile, the Portside also came close to scoring in the very next minutes when Schubert went for the glory from the distance with curling strike but Calangute custodian Jason D’Mello timely pushed it over the crossbar for a corner.

While Calangute goal-scorer Josley was unlucky in the last quarter of the match as he saw his powerful header rebound off the crossbar with every opponent beaten. 

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With both the teams failing to make the most of the chances in the second session, the match ended all square, giving the first point to Vasco in the GPL.