Maroons and Curtorcares into 11-a-side tournament final
Two highly entertaining semifinal clashes for prestigious GOA Rolling Trophy
Curtorcares United team
GOA Maroons team
KUWAIT CITY, March 13: Curtorcares United with a host of talented youngsters edged mighty Soccer Kerala 1-0 while Goa Maroons ensured it will be an all Goa final when they held their nerves to beat Don Bosco Oratory 2-1 in two highly entertaining semifinal clashes for the prestigious GOA Rolling Trophy 11-a-side tournament organized by Goan Overseas Association last Friday under the auspices of Kuwait Indian Football Federation and played at Bayan Grounds.
In the first match, Curtorcares United started in blazing fashion with Myron Fernandes sounding the Kerala cross bar as early as the 10th minute and their forwards were well supported by Godwin, Ajay and Simao keeping good ball possession. The best chance Soccer Kerala had in the first half was when the dangerous Jinesh had his power packed shot well saved by Custodio who had a good game in the Curtorcares goal.
The second half was a seesaw battle with Martino, Brazileo and Melvin keeping the pressure on the Kerala defense led by Domnic, Mansoor and Manu, and with the introduction of Sreekumar in the second half, Soccer Kerala had the extra firepower to attack. However, it was Curtorcares who finally made it to their first ever final of this prestigious tournament when Melwin was at hand to score when the Kerala keeper could not collect cleanly from a Myron freekick. The match was officiated by Robert Bernard.
Goa Maroons gave the perfect farewell gift for their long serving President Raymond D’Sa who will be saying adieus to Kuwait shortly with a hard fought 2-1 victory over arch rivals Don Bosco Oratory in the second semifinal.
Don Bosco had the first opportunity as early as the first minute of the game when Aftab and Prajot both failed to connect on the Maroons goal line. Both teams had to make tactical changes when they lost important players due to injury in the first half, Conrad of Maroons and Liston of Don Bosco were both replaced and Loyed Mascarenhas having to take up defensive duty for DBO and Agnelo D’Souza taking up the mid field for Maroons.
Hard working Vishal Kotak gave Goa Maroons the lead in the first half when he shot past Alvaro in the DBO goal to take his team into half time with the cushion of his goal.
DBO came back strongly in the second half with Aftab, Agnelo, Cleto and Prajot combining well to keep the pressure on Goa Maroons who to their credit defended extremely will with Steven Correa marshaling the defense and ably supported by James, Peter and Clayton.
However, the DBO pressure finally resulted in the equalizer when Alwyn headed brilliantly past a diving Britto in the Maroons goal.
Coach Derrick’s ploy of bringing in super sub Allen in the second half however paid dividends as his precise cross in added time found Vishal Kotak lurking in the far corner of the DBO goal and his diving header won the game for Maroons much to the delight of their delirious supporters.
The match was extremely well controlled by referee Cleetus and he was assisted by Sameer and Dylon on the lines.
The final is scheduled to be played on Friday March 17, 2017 at 8:30 am between Goa Maroons and Curtorcares United and Raymond D’Sa the president of Goan Overseas Association will be the chief guest. Earlier on the same day, an exhibition match between KIFF Veterans and KEFAK Veterans will be played at 7:00 am and all fans and supporters are requested to come in large numbers to support their teams.