GOAN TEAM SHINES IN EXPATRIATE SOUTH ASIAN FOOT-BALL
CHAMPIONSHIP
BENQ,SIEMENS sponsored Kuwait Goan Association, one of the top Indian soccer
teams in Kuwait and playing excellent foot-ball at Kheitan Stadium on 3rd of
this month, easily defeated Sunrise Nepal Club by scoring 6 goals and
receiving 1. Though Nepali players gave their best to overcome the
stiffness they encountered from Goan team yet they were found wanting in
many departments of the game. Besides, Goan team as one of the
representatives of India, from the beginning till the final blow maintained
an upper hand over their rivals. The Goan team was nicely manned under
their bar by their skipper Cony Rodrigues who proved to be a hard nut to
crack for Nepali Club. At present he is one of the finest keepers amongst
all the Goan keepers playing in Kuwait. The defense line of BENQ.SIEMENS
KGA was marshalled around their reliable and ex Dempo stopper Teotonio who
was well supported by the other defenders especially Marcelino. The midfield
was well orchestrated by the boots of veteran Philip, Godfrey and Roland
while their forward line consisting of Ashton, Alex and Melwin mesmerized
the defensive wall created by Nepali players namely Dahal and Magan Singh
Nagar. To their bad luck, referee gave red card to Sanjaya Kumar in the
beginning of the match itself when he fouled deliberately KGA forward Ashton
who himself took the kick by blasting the ball into the net which gave no
chance to Nepali keeper Jagat. Within 15 minutes Goan team increased the
tally to 2 when Roland Fernandes from centre line dribbled past two Nepali
defenders and fed the ball to their untiring forward Melwin who completely
fooled the rival keeper by scoring the second goal. The third goal was
again scored by Ashton in a similar manner as he scored his first goal when
umpire gave second penalty in favour of BENQ.SIEMENS KGA for a serious
infringement by a defender of Nepali team. Earlier Philip who had a vast
experience in Goa for playing professional soccer for 17 years for three of
the top Goan Teams, namely Vasco, Salgaocar and Dempo, playing wonderfully
and orchestrating most of the moves from the midfield scored a beautiful
goal when his right footer almost from the Center line completely baffled
the rival keeper. In the meantime, Nepal reduced the margin by a lone goal
scored by their forward Vikram Lama.
The second half again was dominated by BENQ.SIEMENS KGA India but Nepal also
played a good game and allowed only two more goals for their Indian
opponents to score thru the boots of Jose Callardo and Alex. This match was
nicely supervised by all Kuwaiti professional umpires.
Earlier in the first match at the same venue at Kheitan Stadium between
M.E.S.C. Nepal and S.Y.C. Sri Lanka, the former had to use their reserve
energy to win the maximum points by downing their rivals by scoring 2-1
goals. This match was also refereed by all the Kuwaiti umpires.
Earlier before the start of this match, all the participating teams took
part in the march past, the national flags of the participating teams were
also displayed during the march past. Amongst the spectators Nepalese and
Sri Lankans came in bigger number including the female members of their
communities. The VIPs who attended the soccer festival were Sri Lankan
Ambassador, Sri Lankan Airline Manager Lalit Peres, Mr. Ahmed Izzat, Nasser
Gabandi from Amiri Diwan, Mr. Bhandari the Editor of National Sports
Magazine, Nepal and Mr. Subhin The Marketting Manager of BENQ.SIEMENS who
sponsored the Indian Team - Kuwait Goan Association under the presidency of
Slavador Dias. Speaking to this writer Mr. Subhin showed his total
satisfaction over the titanic performance of KGA. As a great admirer of
soccer he felt sponsoring a team like KGS will create a very good impact.
According to the organizers Indian Embassy was invited but unfortunately
none of the diplomats came.
Those ho spoke before the start of the first match were Mr. Gurun, the
president of organizing committee, Mr. Deepak the Gen. Secretary and Adviser
Mr. Rajandra on bhalf of thr organizers while A. Veronica Fernandes on
behalf of India in his short speech praised the organizers for holding such
a nice soccer tournament for the Expatriates of South Asian Countries.
On Friday 10th of this month, G.O.A. meets with MESC Nepal at 1.00 pm and at
SRSC Nepal will face KLUS Sri Lanka at2.30.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.
_________________________________________________________________
FREE pop-up blocking with the new MSN Toolbar - get it now!
http://toolbar.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200415ave/direct/01/
