Bhubnaeswar:The opening day of the 76th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy Final Rounds saw three games played out in Group A.
A day of 11 goals yielded just one winner, defending champions Kerala edging out Goa 3-2 in the opening game of the day, thanks to an injury time winner by OM Asif.
It was a game that turned on its head in the space of 13 minutes in the second half. Kerala, having taken the lead courtesy a Nijo Gilbert penalty (27’) proceeded to score a second in the 57th, Riswanali Edakkavil tapping in from close range off a corner. The defending champions looked in cruise control, when suddenly disaster struck.
Goa pulled one goal back in the 60th minute via a Mahammed Faheez penalty, and suddenly the momentum shifted. Faheez added a second in the 73rd minute to draw them level and a massive upset looked on the cards. Both sides missed a flurry of chances in the final ten minutes, before Asif tapped in the winner in the first minute of injury time to ensure the defending champions started off with a win.
For the home supporters and watchers, the tournament only kicked off when hosts Odisha took on Maharashtra later in the afternoon. Buoyed by a vocal crowd at the Capital Football Arena, Odisha were the ones who started stronger, controlling not just possession, but also creating chances aplenty in an all-action first half. Marshalled by the steady presence of captain Rakesh Oram, Odisha forced Shivam Kiran Pednekar into multiple saves in the first half.
The display was enough for Maharashtra coach Steven Dias to not just lay into his team at the break but also change personnel in midfield. Dias brought on Kaustubh Ravindra at the beginning of the second period in place of Shrikant Molangiri. Molangiri was a last minute addition to the Maharashtra team after Arif Shaikh had pulled out of the squad.
Ravindra immediately brought control into the Maharashtra midfield and soon enough they were creating more, despite remaining ineffective in the final third. In the 57th minute, Omkar Patil volleyed a cross low and hard into the box, from Ashley Koli’s switch, to cause panic in the Odisha defence. A bungled clearance fell kindly for Patil again, who this time composed himself to find Armansh Ansari. Ansari scored from close range to give Maharashtra the lead.
They had multiple chances to kill the game from there on, the most glaring of which fell to Rushikesh Patil in the 75th minute, the forward missing a clean header on goal from Koli’s cross. Odisha sensed that this was their moment to turn things around. And they did. A vocal crowd, dignitaries in attendance and even the ball boys joined into cheering the home team into an equaliser, as Odisha launched a late onslaught on the Maharashtra goal. It yielded reward soon, Chandra Muduli drawing a save from Pednekar, and then slamming the rebound into the roof of the net.
Maharashtra were suddenly just looking to survive. Pednekar was called into action multiple times in the final five minutes as Odisha kept plugging away. In the end, a draw seemed deserved.
For coach Salim Pathan it was a chance missed, and he admitted that if not for Pednekar’s heroics and some lacklustre finishing the result could have been different.
“I’m disappointed, I won’t lie,” he said. “If you don’t get three points after putting in such a commanding performance then it frustrates you. But I give it up to the boys for never letting their heads drop and getting a crucial point.”
In the second afternoon game, Punjab were held to a 2-2 draw by a late Karnataka fightback. After a goalless first half, Punjab struck twice in four minutes via Kamaldeep (65’) and Bipul Kala (69’). They looked to have the three points sealed, only for Karnataka to get one back in the 82nd minute via P Kamalesh. Robin Yadav’s goal in the third minute of injury time saw Karnataka edge a point, from one of no return.
