NOVEMBER 11: Both Salgaocar and Churchill Brothers face opponents which have the knack of pulling surprises. Churchill clash with JCT, Phagwara tomorrow while Salgaocar take on Mahindras in the second semi-final of the Bristol Rovers Cup tournament at Cooperage.Salgaocar and Churchill are competent teams with good balance in attack and defence.While JCT have so far produced a very disciplined performance, the factor in their favour is their indomitable spirit. Not that they have faced such a situation. Their display against Air-India was testimony to that. Air-India were playing almost a flawless game for a long period in the second half. But JCT showed splendid recovery. The ball was usually out of defence quickly and Air-India always faced the threat of a counter-attack.But to succeed against a team like Churchill, JCT need to keep things very tight in defence. If they are going to be lackadaisical as they were against Air-India, JCT's campaign could well come to an end.Though Churchill start favourites, they have to be on the guard against a surprise attack from JCT, particularly Jaswant Singh, who exhibited good shooting skills against Air-India.After a listless display against BMFC in the opening match, Churchill have emerged as title winners with their display in the remaining two games.The midfield Oscar Hunda, Rocky Barreto and Mario Soares - has kept the striker duo of Marcus Carvalho and Francis Silveira busy.Salgaocar have an equally dicey opponent to tackle - Mahindras. After two draws, Mahindras emerged on their own with a 4-1 thrashing of BMFC. With the return of Abhay Kumar in the midfield, Aqueel Ansari's workload has been cut down. Besides, strikers Manjit Singh and Abbas Rizvi have also struck form.Their problem lies in defence. Left-back Naushad Moosa did not start against Churchill and they had all kinds of problems. Khalid Siddique, playing in the mid-field was pulled back and Mahindras had a flat back five!However, the more fancied Salgaocar have the teeth to rip open the Mahindras defence. Especially with Brazalian Joao Santos joining the speedy Alvito D'Cunha upfront. With S Venkatesh starting against Mohd Sporting, Dhaka, the duo upfront have a busy task ahead.
