MARGAO: Dempo Sports Club thrashed a strong and youthful Indian Arrows team 5-2 in the I-League Football played at Nehru stadium this evening and made their intentions known that they mean business to conquer the title and bring glory to this famed football club.
Indian Arrows reduced the margin through Shilton D’Silva (7th minute) and Jeje Kalpeklua (72nd minute). With this win, Dempo, the champion club of India have collected 41 points from 20 matches, while Indian Arrows have so far 23 points from 21 matches. The I-League position now has taken an interesting turn with four teams in contention for the title, three from Goa, namely Dempo, Salgaocar and Churchill Brothers and one team from Kolkata, which is East Bengal.
While Salgaocar are on 43 points in 19 matches, Churchill Brothers also have 43 points but from 21 matches they played so far. East Bengal are on 41 points, the same as Dempo. This being the position, the title is now open for any one of these teams and tomorrow’s tie between Churchill Brothers and Salgacoar is crucial to decide which way the fortunes would smile.
Speaking after the match, Dempo captain Ranti Martins exuding confidence in retaining the title said that, "Dempo Sports Club is a champion material" and that it is the hard work that will give the fruit to the team. He said that the team is combining well and that there are touch matches ahead. International and much-admired medio Climax Lawrence said that the team surely will win the title and that the team is now concentrating on going match by match to reach the target. "The confidence is high", said Climax.
Dempo coach Armando Colaco politely refused to spell out his strategy of securing the title and rather asked this reporter to contact the players themselves for the comments. Dempo played in cool right from the start and had the major chunk of possession in their favour, dominating both the sessions of play.
They could have come up with a higher margin of victory, had it not been for the missed chances which came in the way of Clifford Miranda, Joaquim Abranches and even Ranti Martins at times. These strikers missed golden opportunities in both the sessions of play, though Ranti made amends by scoring two good goals.
It was the intelligence and methodical play of Beto that needs to be mentioned in today’s big win for the Dempo club. His accurate passes, fantastic positioning, right anticipation of the ball and precise passing abilities kept the rivals on their toes for the major part of the game.
Had two of Beto’s immaculate tries entered the nets, Dempo would have made it a tennis score today, even though his colleagues in the upfront on some occasions messed up the opportunities.
As a matter of fact, it was Beto who was responsible for opening the account for the Dempo team as early as in the 5th minute itself. Latching to a ball, Beto sent a neat floater to Iranian defender Rouhollah Samienia who had no difficulty at all to head the ball to the far corner of the net to beat Indian Arrows custodian Kamaljit Singh.
Hardly had the celebrations of the Dempo team died down, Joaquim Abranches had a great chance to score but he failed to beat the rival keeper from close. Indian Arrows retaliated in the next minute itself and came up with the equaliser. Striker Jeje Lalpeklua moved on the flank and sent the ball to Shilton D’Silva on the top of the ‘D’ area. Wasting no time, this youthful lad (Shilton) let go a powerful right footer that Dempo keeper Laxmikant Kattimani had no chance at all to react.
Indian Arrows then exuded some confidence and thwarted several Dempo moves wherein their defence did a commendable job to contain the marauding Dempo strikers for sometime, though later on Dempo had a major say in the exchanges that fetched them such a huge win today.
If Indian Arrows could not withstand the might of Dempo’s in the latter part of the match it was only through their inexperience as the team is just under the age group of 19 to 20 years. On the other hand, Dempo failed to utilise most of their chances which would have fetched them a better goal-difference.
Dempo made it 2-1 in their favour when the menacing striker Joaquim Abranches was brought down by Arrow’s defender Lalrin Dika Ralte in the penalty box. The resultant spot kick was accurately put into the nets by Beto by sending the ball to the right of Arrow’s keeper Jagroop Singh who brought in some good saves to rescue his team from getting hammered totally.
Just at the fag end of the first session, Ranti Martins made it 3-1 in favour of Dempo off a combined move by Beto, Clifford and Abranches.
Sixteen minutes into the second session, Ranti completed his brace. Clifford raced down and crossed the ball to Climax who saw Ranti unmarked. The last named made no mistake to romp the ball home.
Dempo then completely dominated the proceedings but then suddenly, Indian Arrows came up with another goal scored through a penalty. Dempo’s Iranian defender Samienia fouled Arrow’s Jagtar Singh inside the box. Referee Denny Jacob from Kerala had no hesitation to point to the dreaded spot and striker Jeje who took the responsibility made no mistake(4-2). Soon Jeje saw his shot hitting the rival post but then Dempo had other ideas. After weaving several rings round the rival territory in search of more goals, they finally made the score 5-2 in their favour 7 minutes from end when Beto sent a stiff grounder to complete his brace for the day.
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