 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Vasco Sports Club custodian Saji Joy saved a crucial spot-kick as his team beat Tollygunge Agragami 7-6 in sudden-death in the Tata Federation Cup football tournament in Kolkata on Tuesday.
The victory gave Vasco a berth in the quarter-finals.
Joy successfully punched Kajal Bhattacharjee's high shot to send Tollygunge crashing out of the tournament, after a see-saw pre-quarter final battle at the Salt Lake stadium.
The match rolled into the tie-breaker after the teams finished 1-1 in regulation time and half an hour of extra-time.
In the penalty shoot-out, Menino Fernandes, Denis Cabral, Kamal Thapa, John Dias, Vinoo Jose and Levy Coelho found the target for the Goans while Amit Das, Akeem Abolanle, Isiaka Aboyemi, Goutam Debnath and Suman Dutta were successful for Tollygunge.
Earlier, Amit Das put Tollygunge ahead in the 42nd minute before substitute Anthony Fernandes restored parity for the Goans two minutes before the final whistle.
Following an Akeem pass from top of the box, Das shot into the far corner of the net with a firm right footer, to make the scoreline 1-0.
Vasco neutralised the lead in the 88th minute from a freak sudden floater from the right that caught the Tollygunge defenders napping. Fernandes, who had joined the action only 15 minutes earlier, found himself in the clear with rival custodian Samit Debnath having hopelessly come out of his charge. He only had to nod the ball in.
Vasco, who became the second Goan team to enter the last eight after Salgaocar, will lock horns for a place in the pre-summit round on August 3 with the winners of the July 31 pre-quarter-final exchange between East Bengal and HAL, Bangalore.
Vasco, who looked rusty, having come into the tournament without much match practice, improved as the game progressed, kept more possession with medios Denis Cabral and Menino Fernandes putting up a spectacular display.
However, they missed the redoutable Brazilian Ruy Wanderley, who had played a stellar role for the side in the last edition of the National Football League.
Left back Vinu Jose also overlapped constantly to lend support to the strikers, who looked tentative before the rival goalmouth.
Later, Vasco coach Derrick Pereira praised his team's showing, particularly that of the defenders, but admitted that his strikers needto improve, and set up a better coordinaton with the medios.
Tollygunge, on the other hand, relied on fast counters, with linkman Amit Das giving a sterling performance. They dominated the opening session, getting several chances, but Nigerian Akeem's effort was saved by Joy early in the game, before his shot went past the near post about 10 minutes before the breather.
Akeem came close to scoring on two other occasions in the first-half. His sortie narrowly missed the target in the 44th minute, before Joy saved his shot on the second attempt a minute later.
The second session belonged to Vasco, but Tollygunge's Das missed an open net in the 86th minute, with his grounder going out.