In-form Sporting Goa down struggling Vasco in GPL

Ravish Narvekar

The Port Towners suffered the eighth defeat of the season.

The first-half brace from Rohan Rodrigues and a second half goal from Ivon Costa helped Sporting Clube de Goa to secure an easy 3-1 win over struggling Vasco Sports Club in the Goa Professional League 2022-23 match played at Duler Stadium on Monday. Cavin Lobo scored the lone goal for the Port Towners.

Vasco had numerous changes to their side following defeat in their last match against FC Goa as Sahil Parwar made the first start. Whereas, Suman Lepcha, Odili Felix Chidi, Milton Gomindes, Clifford Costa and keeper Debasish Ghosal made the comeback for the Port Towners. On the other hand, Flagan Rodrigues was the lone change for Sporting who defeated Churchill Brothers FC by a solitary goal in the last match.

Sporting made a great start to the match as after an attacking start they managed to surge ahead in the 12th minute. Lloyd Mascarenhas tried his luck from outside the box where his strike was brilliantly blocked by Vasco keeper Debasish but he failed to collect it. Taking advantage of the situation, unmarked Rohan Rodrigues slotted the ball into the net to make it 1-0.

Energized by an opener, Sporting quickly doubled their lead through Rohan. Stendly Fernandes made a defence-splitting through pass to the midfielder who darted in the box and calmly beat Vasco's onrushing keeper Debasish making it 2-0 in the 14th minute. Sporting had a chance to further extend their lead within the next three minutes when Stendly was in the commanding position in the box but his powerful strike went wide.

Vasco took 25 minutes to register their first potent attack as a brilliant through pass by their skipper Francisco Fernandes set up Cavin Lobo in the box. The midfielder easily cut past a few opponents and tried to find his teammate Felix at the far post. However, Sporting defender Alton Vaz made a timely interception to restrict the Port Towners from reducing the lead.

However, Vasco pulled one back in the 33rd minute through Cavin. The midfielder smartly played a one-two-one pass with Ganesh from the set piece where Ganesh set him up in the box with a beautiful through pass. Cavin swiftly moved in and shot past Sporting keeper Bhaskar Jalmi from an acute angle to make it 2-1.

Vasco should have found the equaliser in the 41st minute when Felix made a lob pass to unmarked Ganesh in the box where the midfielder's strike was entering the goal after hitting a rival keeper but their defender Alton made a goal-line clearance to keep his side safe.

They made a few more raids before halftime but miss passing in the final third restricted the Port Towners from finding an equaliser until the breather.

Vasco showed urgency to find the net after the resumption of play and raided a rival cathedral on a couple of occasions. First, Cavin and Ganesh nicely combined in the midfield but Cavin's effort to set up his teammate with a through pass was intercepted by Sporting defender Myron Fernandes. A minute later, Cavin came with another beautiful through pass to Felix but Sporting keeper Bhaskar came off his line to collect the ball before the Nigerian forward could do any damage.

A few minutes later, Ganesh sent a perfect through pass in the box to Cavin but once again Sporting skipper Myron came to rescue his side with a timely clearance at the cost of a corner.

At the other end, Sporting stunned the dominant Vasco in the 77th minute with a third goal. Ivon Costa saw the laps in Vasco's last line and chose to go for glory where his scorching strike from outside the box easily beat rival's substitute goalkeeper Luis Barreto to make it 3-1.

Vasco refuse to give up and fought until the last minute where Cavin, Felix and Ganesh looked at the goal from inside the box but Sporting keeper Bhaskar stood in between Vasco's attackers and the frame.