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Journalism of Courage
Mahindras United got off to a flying start in their campaign for the AFC Cup, as the team scored a hard fought 2-1 win over Dhoffar Club (Oman) at Nehru Stadium, here today.
Mahindras, who relied on counter moves, took the lead in the 21st minute, when Shamugam Venkatesh essayed a left-footer after defender Farajallah al Seem failed to intercept a long lob from the right by Jinto Jose.
The visitors controlled the game throughout and held more of the exchanges. But lack of finishing proved to be their undoing. Mahindras keeper Naseem Akhtar who replaced injured Kalyan Chaubey made three brilliant saves to deny the visitors from restoring parity.
Dhoffar’s only grey area was their defence which looked jittery when put under pressure, but Mahindra’s Patron Raphael, who was set free twice inside the box in the first half, failed to exploit the chances to increase the team’s lead in the first half.
Mahindras got the jolt in the injury time of the first half when their defender Odartey Lawson got marching orders from Malaysian referee Ramachandran Krishnan when he got the second yellow card for a hard tackle on Ahmed Bait said.
Dhoffar took the advantage in the second half as they restored parity in the 55th minute when Farajallah al Seem laid a pass to Obenwa Joseph, who beat keeper Akhtar with a low angular drive. The goal spurred Dhoffar as they made repeated forays in the rival box and nearly took the lead. However, Akhtar made a good diving save to put the ball out of danger off Salah al Amri’s shot off a pass from Saif Ghafari.
Abhishek Yadav put his team up in the 66th minute when he beat keeper Ahmed al Kaaf with a header off a free-kick taken by Khalid Ahmed.
The visitors who were desperate to find the equaliser made an all-out effort but were thwarted by the rival defence, where Arun Kumar Malhotra stood tall along with keeper Akhtar to deny dying minute goals.
