Odafe steers Churchill home again

Churchill grounded Air India 3-2 after twice coming back from deficit. It was Churchill’s top shooter Nigerian Odafe Okolie who rescued the Goans, scoring the winner with nine minutes left on the clock. With 10 goals in three matches, Odafe remains the top scorer in the tournament by a huge margin.

Air India went ahead early when Dhanchandra Singh cleverly headed in a Santosh Koli free-kick from the left flank. The Goan outfit, which had steamrolled the opposition in the previous two matches, was shocked into launching repeated attacks and reaped rewards for their audacity through an equaliser 10 minutes later. A dipping free-kick from outside the area by Odafe was intercepted and headed towards the post by Gourmangi Singh. Custodian Raju Ekka blocked the lanky defender’s first attempt but the rebound went in off Gourmangi’s body.

The strike by Churchill again spurred Air India to go all out and the Mumbai-based side regained the lead through another set piece. This time a free-kick from Napoleon Singh from near the right touchline was brought back into the six-yard box by Nigerian Bashiru Abbas and a diving Koli managed to head past goalkeeper Vinay Singh. Churchill coach Mario Soares then replaced custodian Vinay with Lalit Thapa.

His team came back a second time when mercurial Odafe weaved his way into the box after dribbling past four defenders. His shot was parried by Ekka but compatriot Mboyo Iyomi was at the far post to knock the rebound into the unguarded net.

The second half was a far cry from the electric show of the first, with both teams holding back on level terms. But it was always going to be a difficult job to hold Odafe, and the Nigerian came up with a shrewd move yet gain to fetch the Goans the winner late in the match. Odafe barged in Air India’s box dodging two defenders, Ekka saw the danger and charged forward to thwart the Nigerian but Odafe went past him in a flash and rounded off defender Uttam Singh to find an empty net.

Contrary to the topsy-turvy tussle of the first match, the Mahindra-Salgaocar match did not see any goals over 120 minutes of open play and neither side seemed to have either the will or creativity to get on the scoresheet.

Derrick Pereira’s side has reached the title match with back-to-back tie-breaker victories over Sporting Clube de Goa and Salgaocar. A repeat of their performance at the Federation Cup in Ludhiana. Their only goal in regulation time also came via a penalty against Border Security Force.

Salgaocar players had only themselves to blame as skipper Rocus Lamare and Shylo Malswamtlunga sent their kicks over. While Nigerian Felix Chimaokwu and Joe Rodrigues were successful, but it was in vain in the end for Savio Medeira’s team.

For Mahindra, Ghanaian Yusuf Yakubu, Harpreet Singh, Douhou Sey Djidja Pierre from Ivory Coast and Sunil Kumar found the target.

Both halves of the match were lacklustre, with the two sides seemingly content with proceedings without exerting themselves. Mahindras seem to have perfected the art of dragging matches and coach Pereira makes no bones about it.

“We would want to win in regulation time but somehow our strikers have not been able to put it in between the bars, although they strike the bars regularly. But on the positive side, the performance of our defenders has been heartening,” said Pereira.

Results

•Churchill Brothers 3 (Gourmangi Singh 17, Moboyo Iyomi 35, Odafe Okolie 81st) beat Air India 2 (Dhanchandra Singh 7, Santosh Koli 26)

•Mahindra United 0 (4) (Yusuf Yakubu, Harpreet Singh, Douhou Sey Djidja Pierre, Sunil Kumar) beat Salgaocar 0 (2) (Felix Chimaokwu, Joe Rodrigues)