Football: Casual Dempo draw against Mumbai FC

Dempo Sports Club, content with a place in the semi-finals of the 30th Federation Cup, did not mind looking second best to Mumbai FC here at the Barasat stadium on Tuesday, finishing their league matches with a 1-1 draw.

The Mumbai side came into the game with just two points and no chance of advancing to the semi-finals. But they showed the eagerness expected from a team which has nothing to lose. They took all the initiative and looked hungry.

However, it was Dempo who went ahead. The goal was a result of both planning and luck. Joaquim sent the ball across to Clifford Miranda on the right. Clifford headed it to the goal-mouth where Cliffton Gonsalves’s marker had him covered. But he failed to connect and Cliffton managed a touch to send it into the goal.

The brightest moment of the match saw Mumbai FC make it 1-1. They got a free-kick 20 yards from the goal. Alex Ambrose’s right-foot free-kick swung past the wall and went in through the second post leaving the goalkeeper stranded.

Teams

Dempo SC: Abhijit Mondal, John Dias, Creson Antao, Marcus Peixoto, Nascimento Silveira, Climax Lawrence, Jerry Zirsangha (Joe Rodrigues 63), Clifford Miranda, Joaquim Abranches (Peter Carvalho 69), Dominic Noronha, Cliffton Gonsalves.

Mumbai FC: Amit Singha Roy, John Benedict, Anas Edathodika (Sanjay Parte 90), Balpreet Singh, Kamaljeet Kumar, Nishant Mehra (Kutty Mani 64), M. Pradeep (Subhas Chakraborty 80), Jagdish Pappiah, K. Aseem, Alex Ambrose, Felix Abogaye.

Referee: Dhanapati Roy.

Football: Federation Cup: Mahindra, Churchill settle for 2-2 draw

Mahindra United of Mumbai and Churchill Brothers of Goa kept their hopes alive for a semi-final berth when they settled for a 2-2 draw in their league match in group B of the 30th Federation Cup at Vidyasagar stadium in Barasat on Monday evening.

Both the teams have so far earned four points from two matches though the Mumbai outfit is having a better goal average.

The Mumbai team combined well and displayed better passing than their rivals, who preferred to play with long passes which failed to create much danger on the rival fort most of the time.

Mahindra forged into the lead in the 12th minute when Nigerian striker Edeh Chidi, collecting the ball in the rival area, passed the ball to compatriot Sushil Kumar singh who placed it home over the Churchill keeper.

Stung by the reverse, Churchill forced an all out attack and their striker Odafe Okolie gave a backpass to onrushing Dinesh Balan who shot home to bring the equaliser.

Inspired with the leveller, Churchill kept up their pressure and came near scoring again around the midway of first half but Mahindra custodian Subhashish Roy Chowdhury brought up a nice save.

After surviving two Mumbai raids in a couple minutes, Churchill went into attack a minute before the half time and forged ahead through a penalty, which was awarded when Sushant Mathew tripped a goal-bound Odafa inside the box.

Odafa neatly converted the spot kick to take the lead 2-1 which was, however, short-lived as Steven Dias drew level 2-2 soon

Football: Fed Cup: Dempo spank United SC 5-0

I-League champions Dempo SC made a mincemeat of 10-man United SC with a brace each from Ranty Martins and Roberto Mendis Silva to register a thumping 5-0 win in a Group A match of the 30th Federation Cup at the Vidyasagar Krirangan in Barasat on Sunday.

In another match, played under floodlights, State Bank of Travancore [Get Quote] (SBT) held Mumbai FC 3-3 which saw the former pulled off two goals in the dying minutes.

With Sunday’s win, Dempo are almost assured of their place in the last four.

It was Joaquim Abranches who drew the first blood for Dempo in the 22nd minute before the goal flurry dashed the hopes of Subrata Bhattacharya’s boys to make it to the semifinals.

Bhattacharya’s ploy never worked was on target as Goans dominated after taking the lead.

The United’s defence led by the Nigerian duo of Ayeni Bidemi Daniel and Louis Nigi Ebami was too porous for Ranty, who made a comeback recovering from his hamstring pull, to sneak past in every possible way.

It all started via a 22nd-minute free kick from 30 yards which was taken by Roberto Mendis Silva. Utilising it to maximum, Abranches deceived United SC defenders easily to give the team a 1-0 lead.

Abranches was instrumental in doubling the lead as Ranty utilised the former’s centre from the right that left the four defenders surprised. It was too easy for Ranty to finish with a clinical header to open his account in the 34th minute.

After the lime break, Brazilian medio Roberto, displaying some delightful skills, headed their team’s third goal in 53rd minute.

Eleven minutes later, Ranty completed his brace as the United onslaught continued unabated. Roberto completed the rout in the extra time of the match off a Climax Lawrence hit that hit the crossbar. However, an alert Roberto found the net from the rebound.

In the second match of the day, Kalia Kulothungan gave an early lead in the seventh minute to see Mumbai FC go 1-0 up. After 21 minutes of tussle, SBT brought out the equaliser through Martyn John in the 28th minute.

Locked 1-1, the match went into the second-half with Mumbai FC looking to dominate the proceedings. As it turned out an own-goal from Paul Anthony, SBT went down 1-2 in the 57th minute. The unprecedented lead put some momentum back on the David Booth’s boys who slammed home through Ahmed Felix Aboagye in the 70th minute as they look to settle the issue.

However, fate had something else at store for them as they Mumbai boys, who were this year’s I-League qualifiers, brought themselves back into the game by a Kannan R strike in the 90th minute of the match.

A penalty in the second minute of added time shattered Booth’s hope of getting three points from the match as M Abdul Basheer scored from a penalty to help SBT held the Mumbai boys 3-3.