MINOO FERNANDES|NT
FATORDA: F C Goa made their task of knocking the doors of semifinals difficult as they played a 1-1 draw in ISL 4 at Nehru stadium, Fatorda on Wednesday.
F C Goa took the lead in the 53rd minute through French medio Hugo while Nigerian striker Kalu Uche leveled in the 81st minute.
After Delhi Dynamos F C’s close call ,in the first minute, of the none too powerful strike of FC Goa player on loan Manuel Arana was easily grabbed by F C Goa agile keeper Naveen Kumar, the local outfit began to look out for a goal.
Relying heavily on French medio Hugo Boumous – who made some dangerous darting runs that disturbed the Delhi Dynamos defense,it appeared that F C Goa could score early. However, the four chances that fell to them were wasted away by Brandon Fernandes and Hugo –both shooting over the bar.
On another occasion , Mandar Dessai shot into rival keeper Iruent Aguena’s body from close range.
For over thirty minutes of play,F C Goa dominated play ,coming very close in finding the mark. Try as they could, F C Goa seemed to have forgotten how to guide the ball into the rival nets.
Though F C Goa could not be contained when they kept the rival defense guessing ,Delhi Dynamos F C goal evidently was caving under pressure as F C Goa kept on engineering some good goal scoring chances. F C Goa came up with some flowing moves ,but lacked clear finishing abilities.
Delhi Dynamos made break away moves to penetrate inside the F C Goa’s defensive wall ,which looked leaky at times, survived due to the inaccurate shooting abilities of Delhi Dynamos strikers or fine anticipation by F C Goa keeper Naveen Kumar. F C Goa strikers who tried to sneak into the Delhi box could not do so due to the tight defense where Goa’s Rowilson Rodrigues, had an outstanding evening.
F C Goa went into the lead in the 53rd minute of play, thanks to the solo effort of French medio Hugo who ran riot after some quick footwork, hoodwinking the entire Delhi defense and unleashed a right footer to the far corner of the rival nets, giving no chance to rival keeper Iruet from Spain.
Delhi Dynamos could have given a rude shock for F C Goa in the 72nd minute of play had the left footer unleashed by medio Lallianzuala Chhangte entered the nets, intead the ball hit the side nettings. F C Goa defense was left napping at this time by a through pass from the top of the box.
In the very next minute, Delhi Dynamos leveled the score through a placement shot by Nigerian striker Kalu Uche who finished with a neat pass from Lallianzuala to restore parity 1-1,giving no chance to F C Goa keeper Naveen Kumar.
F C Goa threw in Netherlands striker Sifneos in the 82nd minute of play in their last ditch efforts to win the match but in vain. Delhi Dynamos substitute keeper Arnab brought off some spectacular saves to save his team from going down under pressure.