Heavyweights Sporting Clube de Goa and Churchill Brothers in title fight

SCG semi-final penalty hero Arturo Garcia limbering up

Heavyweights Sporting Clube de Goa and Churchill Brothers in title fight

In what is set to be a ferocious battle, Goan heavyweights Sporting Clube de Goa and Churchill Brothers Sports Club will fight till the death in the much awaited Federation Cup finals, organized by the Aiff at JN Stadium, Cochin, in Kerala on Saturday. The kick off is 7pm and is being televised live on Ten Action.
Churchill Brothers are the current I-League champions, while Sporting Clube de Goa is the current Goa Super Cup Champions and Goa Pro League kings. Who will be crowned undisputed champ? Only time will tell.
“We have Gonzalo Hinojal Neila coming back into the defence after serving a suspension, which will be a major asset for our side, remarked Sporting Goa Coach Oscar Bruzon.
The Flaming Oranje road to the final started on a bumpy ride, with a 3-5 loss to Bengaluru, but has since seen the graph rise up and up and up, with a 2-1 win over East Bengal and a 2-0 victory over Rangadajied. In the Semi-finals they were taken the distance by Dempo Sports Club, before eventually outwitting their Panjim rivals 3-2 after extra time.
Churchill topped group A after a 2-1 victory over United Sports Club, followed up by a 2-1 win over Eagles and finally edging out Pune FC 3-2. In the semi-finals they overcame Mohun Bagan 2-1.
Boima Jerry Karpeh will be the danger man for Sporting Goa, as he has been their leading goal scorer this season with 22 goals to his credit. The tall Liberian-Australian had a very brief stint in 2011 with Churchill, where he won the Ifa shield.
Sporting Goa has finished as runners-up in the Federation Cup on two occasions, way back in 2005 against Mahindra United and 2006 against Mohun Bagan and this will be an opportunity to put that right.
Despite winning the other national trophies on offer, this will be Churchill’s first appearance in a Federation Cup final and they will be just as hungry to add to their trophy cabinet.
With the first ever All-Goan Fed Cup final about to take place, Goa will have another opportunity to showcase their dominance in football in the Country, which is expected to have record-breaking eyeball viewership across Goa tuning in to witness the drama unfold.

PHOTO: Sporting Clube de Goa’s penalty hero of the Semi-final, Arturo Garcia limbering up.

Sporting Clube de Goa overcome Dempo 3-2 after 120 minutes

Sporting Clube de Goa

Federation Cup Semi Final
Two successful penalty conversions from substitute Arturo Garcia help book Sporting Clube de Goa’s place in the final after overcoming Dempo Sports Club 3-2 after extra time, in the semi-finals of the Federation Cup at JN Stadium, Cochin, in Kerala on Thursday. The match was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation time.
Boima Jerry Karpeh gave Sporting Goa the lead with a delightful turn and strike into the corner of the net, midway through the first half.
After the breather Dempo started to pressurize more and finally found the equalizer after Roberto Silva slipped the ball through for Tolgay Ozbey to stroke home.
With time running out, Sporting Goa took the lead once again after Arturo’s corner was handled by a Dempo defender and the referee pointed to the spot. Arturo confidently converted the penalty.
Just when the game looked dead and buried, Amiri managed to sneak in and equalize for Dempo.
As the match moved into extra time, Sporting Goa once again was awarded a penalty when Pratesh was pulled to the ground. Arturo stepped up once again to score and send the Flaming Oranje into the final.
Sporting Clube de Goa will play Churchill Brothers in the final of the Federation Cup on Saturday.

Sporting Clube de Goa: Ravi Kumar (gk), Mathew Gonsalves, Keenan Almeida, Kalu Ogba, Beevan D’Mello, Victorino Fernandes, Pratesh Shirodkar, Rowlin Borges, Rovan Pereira (C), Boima Karpeh, Joyner Lourenco
Subs used: (Mackroy Peixote, Arturo Garcia, Jovel Martins)

Dempo SC: Debabrata Roy, Simon Colosimo, Peter Carvalho, Roberto Silva, Clifford Miranda (C), Haroon Fakhruddin, Tolgay Ozbey, Laxmikant Kattimani, Alwyn George, Narayan Das, Pronay Halder

Sporting Clube de Goa take on Dempo in Fed Cup Semi’s

Sporting Clube de Goa ready for action

In an All-Goan derby, Panjim rivals, Sporting Clube de Goa and Dempo Sports Club will do battle at the Semi-final stage of the 35th Federation Cup, organized by the AIFF at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Cochin in Kerala on Thursday night. The kick off is 7.30 pm and the match is live on Ten Action.
Sporting Goa reached the final after recovering from a first match 3-5 loss to Bengaluru FC, to go on and defeat East Bengal 2-1 and overcome Rangdajied United 2-0 in the subsequent match’s to top group “B” with 6 points.
Dempo topped group “D” with 7 points after overcoming Bhowanipore Sports Club 2-1, followed by defeating United Sikkim 3-0. In their last group game they were held to a goalless draw by Mohammedan Sporting.
In their pursuit for goals in this campaign, Sporting Goa have had three main sharp shooters in Victorino Fernandes (3 goals), Boima Jerry Karpeh (2 goals) and Beevan D’Mello (2goals).
When the two clubs met in this season’s I-League, it was Sporting Goa who won by a solitary goal scored by Boima Jerry Karpeh.

Sporting Clube de Goa qualify for the Semi’s

Sporting Clube de Goa qualify for the Semi’s

Sporting Clube de Goa qualified for the semi finals of the Federation Cup after Bengaluru FC lost 0-2 to East Bengal, on Tuesday night, in Kerala.
Former Sporting Clube de Goa star Chidi Edeh scored both goals for East Bengal.
Sporting Clube de Goa will now face Dempo Sports Club in the Semi finals, in Cochin (Kerala) on Thursday. The match is being telecast live on Ten action at 7.30pm.

EARLIER IN THE NIGHT……………..

Sporting Clube de Goa keep Semi-final hopes alive
Second half goals from Boima Jerry karpeh and Victorino Fernandes was enough to give Sporting Clube de Goa a 2-0 victory over Rangdajied United in the Federation Cup, organsied by the AIFF at MDS Complex, Manjeri, in Kerala on Tuesday. The match was goalless at the breather.
Nine minutes after resumption, Rowlin Borges picked out Boima Jerry Karpeh and he opened the scoring for the Flaming Oranje with a delightful chip over the Rangdajied custodian.
Twenty minutes from time, substitiute Victorino Fernandes made sure of the victory for Sporting Goa as he ran past his marker before sinking the ball into back of the net.
With this result, Sporting Goa completes their group “B” appointments with 6 points from three games, while Rangdajied finish on 2 points.
Sporting Goa will now hope East Bengal can get at least a point against Bengaluru FC in the last game of the group, in order for them to qualify for the semi-finals.

Sporting Clube de Goa: Ravi Kumar (gk), Keenan Almeida, Gonzalo Neila, Kalu Ogba, Jovel Martins, Beevan D’Mello, Pratesh Shirodkar, Rowlin Borges, Rovan Pereira (C), Boima Karpeh, Joyner Lourenco

Rangdajied United: Surjay Pariyar (gk), Lamine Tamba, David K.C. Ngaihte, Eugeneson Lyngdoh (c), Edmar Figueira, T. Lalnunpuia, Thomas Saikhom, Gourmangi Singh, Kim Song Yong, W. Tomba Singh, Yohei Iwasaki,

Sporting Clube de Goa aim to qualify for Semi’s

Sporting Clube de Goa aim to qualify for Semi’s

In what was widely believed to be “the group of death” is now being coined “the group of resuscitation,” as Sporting Clube de Goa gets ready to lock horns with Rangdajied United, in a final round match of Group “B” in the 35th Federation Cup, organized by the AIFF at Kerala on Tuesday.
In the other exciting group “B” encounter, Bengaluru FC takes on East Bengal. All four teams still have at least a fighting chance of pulling through to the semi-finals.
After two matches, Bengaluru is currently leading the table with 4 points, followed by Sporting Goa with 3 points, Rangdajied has 2 points and East Bengal has a solitary point in the kitty.
After just 66th minutes into their first group game, it looked like Sporting Goa breathed their last breath when they were trailing by four goals to Bengaluru. But then a rare specimen called “team spirit” threatened to manifest and in the last 16 minutes Sporting Goa clawed back three goals through Boima Jerry Karpeh and substitutes Beevan D’Mello and Victorino Fernandes.
Despite Bengaluru eventually winning 5-3, the Goan “team spirit” was carefully bottled and taken back to the training ground for further analysis.
In their next match, Oscar Bruzon’s men took an early lead through Victorino Fernandes, but in the second session East Bengal pegged them back to 1-1 and elimination from the tournament looked inevitable. It was then left to “team spirit” once again to remedy the situation as Beevan D’Mello popped up for the Flaming Oranje to score the winning goal in the final five minutes.
Rangdajied can also subscribe to that “team spirit”, as they have quietly stayed unbeaten in the tournament so far with a 1-1 draw against East Bengal, followed up with a similar 1-1 result against Bengaluru, when they managed to equalize in the last ten minutes to keep their campaign hopes alive.
The Sporting Clube de Goa v. Rangdajied game is set to kick off at 5pm, while the Bengaluru FC game against Kingfisher East Bengal is scheduled to follow at the same venue, MDS Complex, Manjeri.
Since all four teams are still in the race to qualify for the semi-finals, Sporting Clube de Goa has requested the organizers to host the matches simultaneously in the spirit of fair play.

PHOTO: Sporting Clube de Goa charged up and ready to go all out for victory.

Sporting Clube de Goa keep semis chances alive

SCG v. EB action!!!

Sporting Clube de Goa overcome East Bengal

Beevan D’Mello scored his second goal of the tournament five minutes from time, to hand Sporting Clube de Goa a vital 2-1 victory over Kolkata giants Kingfisher East Bengal in the Federation Cup, organised by the Aiff at MDS Complex, Manjeri in Kerala on Saturday. Sporting Goa led 1-0 at the interval.
After rising off the bench to score in the last match, Sporting Goa striker Victorino Fernandes was handed a start and it did not take him long to repay Coach Oscar Bruzon as he managed to head in a pass from Rowlin Borges in the 18th minute to give the Flaming Oranje the lead.
Changing over, East Bengal were a revitalized team and finally found the equalizer when Ryuji Seoka converted a penalty after the Sporting Goa custodian Ravi Kumar was adjudged to have brought down Harmanjyot khabra.
Five minutes from the end, Sporting Clube de Goa’s Beevan D’Mello crept into the box to score after receiving the ball from substitute Stephene Barretto’s cross.
Sporting Goa has now collected 3 points from two matches, while East Bengal stays on 1 point after the same number of games.

Sporting Clube de Goa: Ravi Kumar (gk), Keenan Almeida, Gonzalo Neila, Kalu Ogba, Beevan D’Mello, Victorino Fernandes, Pratesh Shirodkar, Rowlin Borges, Rovan Pereira (C), Boima Karpeh, Joyner Lourenco

Subs: (Beevan D’Mello/Deepak Devrani), (Victorino Fernandes/ Stephen Barreto), (Pratesh Shirodkar/ Mackroy Peixote)

East Bengal: Raju Gakiwad, Arnab Mondal, Uga Okpara, Harmonjit Singh Kahbra (c), Edeh Chidi, Ryuji Seoka, James Moga, Lalrindika Ralte, Cavin Lobo, Saumik Dey, Gurpreet Singh (gk)

Sporting Clube de Goa look to get back on track against East Bengal

Sporting Clube de Goa players training in Kerala

Sporting Clube de Goa look to get back on track against East Bengal

“We love to play open football, although after the last game we must look to shore up the defence, build up cautiously and then the rest will fall into place,” stated Sporting Clube de Goa Coach Oscar Bruzon as his team prepares to take on Kingfisher East Bengal in the Federation Cup at MDS Complex, Manjeri in Kerala, on Saturday. The kick off is 5p.m.
Sporting Goa was beaten 3-5 by I-League leaders Bengaluru Football Club in their opening group “B” match and will now have to make up the deficit in the next two matches.
“Against Bengaluru, 4 out of the 5 goals were defensive errors and the players have put their hands up and taken ownership for their mistakes so we will start on a clean slate,” remarked Oscar.
Their opponents East Bengal did not have the best of starts either, having drawn 1-1 with Rangdajied United, but have got a point in the kitty for their efforts.
Oscar has decided to make a few modifications to the line up to ensure the team can play to their strengths against an East Bengal squad that boasts of three former Sporting Goa star strikers in Edeh Chidi, James Moga and Cavin Lobo, who East Bengal Coach Armando Colaco can count on when the chips are down.
While in the other corner, Oscar will rely on the likes of Mathew Gonsalves, Kalu Ogba, Boima Jerry Karpeh and Rowllin Borges to rally his troops.
The Flaming Oranje may be without Arturo Garcia who sprained his knee against Bengaluru and Jovel Martins who is still trying to recover from an ankle ligament injury.
Despite conceding five goals against Bengaluru, Oscar was pleased to see his players fighting till the very end, even when they were four goals down at one stage. “On a positive note, we scored three goals in the last 16 minutes, thanks largely to the bullish spirit of the team. The players have grown like a family and I must say I am proud of them,” signed off Oscar.

PHOTO: Sporting Clube de Goa players training on the eve of the game, at Nilambur, Kerala.

Bengaluru FC edge out Sporting Clube de Goa in 8 goal thriller!

Birthday boy Beevan D’Mello

Bengaluru FC edge out Sporting Clube de Goa in 8 goal thriller!

Sporting Clube de Goa nearly staged the comeback of the decade as they went down fighting 3-5 to Bengaluru Football Club in their opening Federation Cup group “B” match organised by the AIFF at MDS Complex, Manjeri, in Kerala, on Wednesday. Bengaluru led 3-0 at the interval.
Bengaluru took the lead after just five minutes when Beikhokhei Beingaichho smashed home from close. The goal set the tone for the first half as Bengaluru Captain Sunil Chhetri managed to double the lead with his head, before Beikhokhei added his second of the game before the breather.
Changing over, substitute Victorino Fernandes was brought down in the box, but Boima Karpeh’s effort from the penalty spot came crashing back of the cross bar.
Soon after, Half time substitute Robin Singh sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to put Bengaluru 4-0 up.
Boima made amends for his earlier penalty miss, by scoring his twentieth goal of the season in all competitions, in the 74th.
In the final minute of normal time, substitute Beevan D’Mello celebrated his 27th birthday by pulling back another goal for the Flaming Oranje.
Deep into injury time Sporting Goa’s Victorino deservedly added his name to the score sheet to make it 3-4, but Bengaluru hung on and sealed victory when Robin struck his second of the game in the third minute of added on time.
Sporting Goa received a lot of applause from the neutrals in the crowd for their gallant display as the game lived up to its billing and worth every rupee spent.

Bengaluru FC: Pawan Kumar, Curtis Osana, John Johnson, Sean Rooney, John Meyongar, Sunil Chetri (c), K. Thoi Singh, Rino Anto, Beikhokhei B, Siam Hangal, Keegan Pereira

Sporting Clube de Goa: Ravi Kumar (gk), Mathew Gonsalves (c), Deepak Devrani, Keenan Almeida, Gonzalo Neila, Kalu Ogba, Arturo Garcia, Pratesh Shirodkar, Rojen Singh, Rowlin Borges, Boima Karpeh

Subs: (Joyner Lourenco in/ Deepak out), (Beevan D’Mello in/ Rojen out), (Victorino Fernandes in/ Rowlin out)

Sporting Clube de Goa aim to start with a bang in Fed Cup

Sporting Clube de Goa aim to start with a bang in Fed Cup

In a mouth-watering opening encounter, Sporting Clube de Goa will lock horns with I-League leaders Bengaluru FC in a group “B” match of the Federation Cup, organized by the AIFF, at MDS Complex, Manjeri, in Kerala, on Wednesday. The kickoff is at 5p.m.

When the two teams met for the first time this season in the I-League, the match ended in a goalless stalemate with neither team giving the other any real room to maneuver.

Despite both camps playing down the hype of this game it has not stopped the fans from getting overly excited, after all it is the current top two teams in the I-League doing battle.

Bengaluru is leading the table with 30 points from 15 matches, while Sporting Goa are second with 27 points, but are enjoying a game in hand over their rivals.

The league ladder will be the furthest thing from the minds of the two Coaches right now and both will be more interested in getting their Fed Cup campaigns off on the right note.

The Goan outfit arrived in Kerala on Monday and settled into the beautiful surroundings immediately.

“There is a great mood in the camp right now with a lot of banter, although come game time my men will be fully focused on the task ahead as they know what is expected of them,” stated Sporting Goa Coach Oscar Bruzon.

Sporting Goa will also have to play Kingfisher East Bengal on the 18th of January and Rangdajied on the 21st of January in the group of death.

The Flaming Oranje has had to leave behind strikers Dawson Fernandes and Mauvin Borges who are both suffering with knee problems.

“Dawson and Mauvin are both important members of the team, but we also have a lot of offensive players in midfield which will make up for their absence,” signed off Oscar.

Sporting Clube de Goa squad which travelled for the Federation Cup:

Goalkeepers: Ravi Kumar, Harshad Meher

Defenders: Mathew Gonsalves, Deepak Devrani, Keenan Almeida, Gonzalo Neila, Jovel Martins, Rojan Singam, Rovan Pereira, Joyner Lourenco

Midfielders: Mackroy Peixoto, Kalu Ogba, Arturo Garcia, Pratesh Shirodkar, Stephene Barretto, Rowlin Borges, Velito Cruz, Joseph Pereira, Beevan D’Mello

Strikers: Boima Karpeh, Victorino Fernandes,

Officials: Oscar Bruzon (Head Coach), Norbert Gonsalves (Assistant Coach), Alex Alvares (Technical Director), Brian D’Costa (Physiotherapist)

Sporting Clube de Goa out of Fed Cup

Sporting Clube de Goa out of Fed Cup

Sporting Clube de Goa missed out on qualifying for the semi-finals after losing 1-2 to ONGC in the Federation Cup at SSB ground, Silliguri, West Bengal on Wednesday. ONGC led 1-0 at the breather.

David Lalrinmuana scored from a free kick to give ONGC the lead in the first half. In the second session the Flaming Oranje found the equalizer through Dawson Fernandes who hammered home his third goal in two games, courtesy of a spot kick.

In the final minute, as the Goan outfit moved forward in search of the winner, they were left exposed at the back and Tarif Ahmed drove the ball home to hand ONGC victory.

In another group match East Bengal defeated Kalighat 4-3 to secure top spot with 7 points and qualify for the semi-finals. ONGC finished runners up with 6 points, Sporting Goa were third with 4 points and Kalighat finished last having lost all three group games.