Margao: There is no stopping senior footballers from
North Goa. For the fifth consecutive ocassion, North got the better of their Southern rivals, although this time by the narrowest of margins at the SAG ground, Fatorda, on Tuesday.
Egilo Rodrigues’ 13th minute goal was enough for North to pip
South in the Senior Citizens’ Sports Meet 2018, organised by the Sports Authority of Goa in collaboration with the All Goa Senior Citizens Federation.
North were dominant again but nowhere close to their performances and goals from the previous four years when they triumphed by a minimum of three goals.
Captained by Anthony Baretto, North had the likes of Arjuna Awardee and former Salgaocar goalkeeper Brahmanand Shankhwalkar, former superintendent of police Allen de Sa, former Sesa player Salvador Fernandes (Salu), while South were boosted by Martin Pires, goalkeeper Prakash Naik, senior journalist Stanislaus D’Souza and Gonsalo Peixoto.
North could have ran riot again had it not been for some impressive goalkeeping from goalkeeper Naik. His reflexes kept South in the hunt and denied North another convincing victory.
It was clear right from the start that North would call the shots. Salvador on the right and Shankhwalkar of the left wing always posed a threat. They could have been up in the third minute itself but Hillary Fernandes failed to direct his header on target after being spotted by Shankhwalkar.
Hillary was on target a few minutes later but his powerful right-footer sailed straight into the hands of the goalkeeper. Another effort from Alexio Simoes was kept away, while substitute Nicolau Queteiro went close with his back flick.
Naik was kept busy throughout the match but could do nothing in the 13th minute. Salu started the attack from the right and crossed the ball into the box where players from both sides jostled for control but Egilo had the last laugh by directing the ball into the net from close range.
Stanislaus at the back and Martin Pires in midfield tried their best to get their team back into the contest but North functioned like a well-oiled machine. Pires, in particular, troubled the rival defence with some fine runs but the forwards let him down. Besides, Justinho Po and 78-year-old goalkeeper Manohar Netrawalkar were simply unbeatable.
Teams:
North Goa (with rolling substitutes: Manohar Netrawalkar, Anthony Barreto, Justinho Po, Brahmanand Shankhwalkar, Joao Rodrigues, Hillary Fernandes, Salvador Fernandes, Nicolau Queterio, Allen de Sa, Santan Fernandes, Agnelo Fernandes, Bernard and Alexio Simoes.
South (with rolling substitutes): Prakash Naik, Gonsalo Peixoto, Stanislaus D’Souza, Prabhakar Naik, Sashikant Phadte, Anthony Barbosa, Carlton Gomes, Natividade D’Sa, Sadanand Kamat, Ramnath Desai, Joseph Fernandes, Norman Fernandes, Jumma Ali, Lerry Rebello, Armando Rodrigues and Custodio D’Souza.
