Goa crashes out of Santosh Trophy, go down to Karnataka

Ravish Narvekar

The Western Coastal side suffered their third consecutive defeat of the Senior National Football Championship 2022-23.

Goa was looking to keep their hopes alive of the semifinals after suffering back-to-back defeats at the hands of Kerala and Odisha in the first two matches but Karnataka crashed their dreams with a neat 2-0 win over the Western Coastal side in the 76th Senior National Football Championship for Santosh Trophy 2022-23, played at Capital Football Arena, Odisha on Tuesday morning.

Jacob Kattookaren put Karnataka into the lead in the 33rd minute, while Abhishekh Powar scored within five minutes of the resumption to grab all three points from the neighbourhood state.

Goans had three changes to their side following a massive 4-1 defeat against Odisha as Domnic Soares, Vieri Colaco and keeper Roanal Gaunkar replaced Ganesh Thakur, Lloyd Cardozo and Hansel Coelho respectively. Whereas, Karnataka gaffer Ravi Babu Raju chose to go with the same XI which stunned the defending champions Kerala in their previous encounter.

Karnataka should have taken lead in the early minutes of the match as their midfielder Shajan Franklin snatched the ball from Goan defender Clive Miranda and made one-two-one passing with his teammates Kartik Swamy and Manoj Swamy just outside the box. The midfielder was later set up in the box by Manoj where he saw his low shot divingly saved by Goan keeper Roanal.

Karnataka continued their dominance our Goa from the start of the match and once again came close to breaking the deadlock as this time a long lofted shot by their defender G John Peter put Shelton Paul in the box where the forward easily cut past three Goan defenders and went for glory but his stiff grounder missed the target by a whisker. A few minutes later, they had a similar opportunity when Powar received a long pass in the box from Manoj but the forward followed the suit of his teammate.

Goa took 18 minutes to create their first clear-cut chance of the match. The Western Coastal side were awarded a free-kick in the dangerous area following a Karnataka defender tackled Goa's Trijoy Dias. Harsh Patre tried to find Shallum Pires at the far post with a curler from the set-piece but Goa's most experienced lad on the field failed to connect his header from close with just a rival keeper at his mercy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDhuLecw3Nc

Highlights of the match between Goa vs Karnataka

At the other end, Shelton found himself unfortunate not to put Karnataka into the lead in the 21st minute as after receiving a diagonal pass from Jacob the forward tried his luck from just inside the box only to see it denied by the side post. A very next minute, the same Karnataka duo were involved in another swift attack on the rivals as this time Shelton made a brilliant through pass to Jacob who darted in the box but couldn't put the ball in the net.

After wasting several opportunities, Karnataka finally managed to find the net in the 33rd minute from the set piece. A fine corner by Lalremtluanha was smartly headed in by Jacob from inside the 6-yard box which went beat the Goan defender Nickson and settled in the back of the nylons.

Karnataka continued to trouble Goan defenders in the rest of the session but they couldn't capitalise on their chances. On the other hand, Goa had one last chance before halftime when they were awarded another free-kick just outside the box. Shallum's strike deflect off the wall and dropped in the box to Faheez whose weak shot was comfortably collected by Karnataka custodian Satyajit Bordoloi.

Down by a goal, Goan coach Norberto Gonsalves made double substitutions at halftime as Domnic and Veiri made way for Ganesh and Clencio Pinto but the duo couldn't make much impact in the match.

Meanwhile, Karnataka took just five minutes into the second session to extend their lead. Powar collected a long clearance by his teammate and quickly passed it to unmarked Jacob who made a defence-splitting through pass to the forward again. Powar excellently danced past Goan defenders Clive and Nickson in the box before clinically finishing in the net to make it 2-0.

Karnataka almost extended their lead within the next four minutes when Shelton dribbled past a few opponents to enter the box and shoot at the goal but Goan keeper Roanal came with a breathtaking save to push his fierce grounder for a corner.

The last quarter of the match witnessed some resistance from Goa as they tried to put pressure on the rivals where they had a chance to reduce the margin when Trijoy found Ganesh at the far post with a pin-point perfect cross but the substitute lad shot wide from inside the 6-yard-box. A few minutes later, Trijoy once again breached Karnataka's last line and made a cut back to Clincio in the box but his shot was brilliantly collected by Karnataka custodian Bordoloi

Goan coach Norberto used all his substitutes bringing in Rayan Menezes, Ribhav Sardesai and Akeraj Martins but non of them could change Goa's fortune until the full-time whistle.

With this defeat, Goa sits at the bottom of the table without any points from three matches, while Karnataka climbed top of the Group A with seven points from the same number of outings.

In the other matches of the Group A, Punjab edged past Odisha by a 2-1 margin at the same venue in the evening, while Kerala recorded a high-scoring 4-4 draw against Maharashtra at Kalinga Stadium.

The win helped Punjab to secure seven points from three matches and sit at the second spot. Odisha (3rd) and Kerala (4th) have four points each after playing the same number of matches, while Maharashtra sits in fifth place with just two points.