Zee Churchill rides ahead on a Coelho goal

By S.R. Suryanarayan

CHENNAI, AUG. 21. Zee Churchill's Ghana import Edward Ansah was flawless under the bar. SBT's T.G. Purushothaman too came close but only, for his one mistake was to separate the day's winner and the loser. The Goa team reaping the benefit moved into the quarterfinals with a 1-0 verdict in the Federation Cup football tournament at the Nehru Stadium on Tuesday.

Looking back, Purushothaman will curse himself no end for committing what looked like an unpardonable slip of letting a feebly rolling ball into the net. The incident happened in the 55th minute and after the Thiruvananthapuram side, playing with lot more freedom as compared to its first outing, had been dominating the exchanges.

A flag kick came Churchill's way. The long-haired Noel Wilson took the kick from near corner and as it happened the ball came at handy height for Francis Coelho to head low and the bouncing ball, amazingly stole through between a jungle of legs eluding the fallen Purushothaman. In the current tournament that was enough to see the writing on the wall.

If there was hope that SBT would write a different script then it stemmed from its day's form. The pleasing bouts of passing and daring thrusts in the front brought SBT attack more into focus. Pocket-sized Ashif Saheer was the cynosure of all eyes. Very cunning in his movements, the young striker showed a skillful pair of legs when it came to finding the path past the defenders.

Early in the contest itself he had become a darling of the spectators and he looked the most likely to provide succour for the Bankmen. But what the team did not reckon with was the classy goal-keeping of Ansah, who was such a tower of strength for Churchill in the NFL earlier.

For nearly 30 minutes from start, Saheer, Ignatious and Ajayan made regular visits to Ansah only to run back disappointed. Each close effort was replaced with hopes of better luck next time. But that was never to come and the one grand effort by Ansah epitomised his touch: Saheer sneaking into the box, none to challenge and only Ansah in front. The Ghanaian looked lost, seemed to go on his knees but how he came in the way of Saheer's powerful blast from close to deflect the ball away !

A drizzle close to half time provided just the dampness to help the ball roll better. SBT certainly enjoyed this from the way the passings got elaborated to the logical end but ironically it was SBT's citadel that fell, thanks to Purushothaman's faux pas.

Try as they did, even going all out by end stages, Saheer, later Sanush and Mohammed Nisam as also Abdul Naushad could hardly rattle Ansah, who became the obvious choice for `player of the match' tag.

Air India goes down fighting

Expectations did not sour for holder Mohun Bagan, the team that has won the title ten times. The match produced a good contest with Air India in no mood to give in easily. Though the Mumbai team gained a margin-reducing goal, the 2-1 verdict was good enough for the glamour team from Kolkata to move into the quarterfinals.

Surely Bagan played in keeping with its status and strength. As the current league leader in Kolkata, the side appeared quite settled and all the worry was only on the playing surface. But early territorial ascendancy put the team in good stead and when Rennedy booted in Nigerian Abdul Lateef Seriki's goal-mouth cross (7th minute) that beat two defenders, the set- piece act fired up the Bagan players.

But Air India was not to lag behind and credit for this goes to Tomba Singh's lion hearted display. The short-haired and slightly built Tomba showed his skill at distribution and the way he prompted Narendra Meetei (later substitute Suprith Jathanna) and Samson Singh formed the story of Air India fight back.

But first the interest was on the way Bagan settled to smooth pattern with Seriki and the redoubtable Brazilian Barreto forming the spearheads up front. Rennedy and substitute James Singh provided assistance with Basudeb Mondal marshalling the midfield. Another Brazilian Amauri Da Silva led the defence. Quick passing, long diagonals and the scramble at the Air India formed the initial order before Tomba triggered a turn around.

Bagan's consolidation goal came from Barreto fittingly at the stroke of the hour. James had put him through and as goal- keeper Israt Kamaal charged out, Barreto shot but onto the crosspiece. Seriki controlled the rebound and squared it again to Barreto to complete the task, a powerful right footer to bulge the net.

Nobody expected Air India to rise from this blow. But it only increased its sorties. Clever triangle passes and runs effected confusion in the rival defence and in this midst Amauri pushed down Samson Singh in the box. Referee Balu signalled for the spot kick and Naushad Moosa made no mistake. That heightened excitement but this much can be said in the end, Air India went down with its guns blazing. Deservingly Tomba was adjudged the `player of the match'.

On Wednesday: quarterfinals: Tollygunge Agragami vs. Sporting Club de Goa, 6 p.m. Thursday: quarterfinals: JCT vs. Dempo, 6 p.m.

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