FC Goa did us proud! Go Gaurs!! Very few expected the Goans
to win against in-form Bengaluru FC. For one thing, they have been playing
together for much longer than the other teams in the ISL. For another, they
have some of the stars of Indian football in their line-up — including, but not
restricted to the current Indian football team captain Sunil Chetri, and the Indian
national team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. (On a side note, apparently
Fatorda isn’t good for Chetri. Ah well… ) For a third, the Gaurs, playing with
a larger contingent of Goan players than ever before, have been at the
receiving end recently, with Captain Kattimani coming in for a lot of flak for
letting goals through ‘right between his legs’ as woeful fans complain. Safe to
say that the mood before the game was a mix of defiant “Goa will win!” from
young optimists (some literally young and some young-at-heart) to a more pragmatic
“B’lore is the far better team” from more experienced and jaded supporters. But
defiant or pragmatic, what counted was that the fans came — from all over Goa
and even abroad. Several Goan-origin Canadians, down in Goa for vacations, made
their way to Fatorda to cheer.
The game started with the Bangalore team bowling the Goan
players over here, there and everywhere. The crowd booed and roared and then
the Gaurs hit their stride with the Goan supporters finding a new love. While
Mandar and Bruno Pinheiro seemed to get the loudest cheers at the start, by the
end of the game there was just one name on everyone’s lips — Coro. Ferran
Corominas, “Coro”, has gone in the record books as the first scorer of a
hat-trick in the ISL 4. And he did it in style. His first goal was a beaut. He
elegantly dodged his marker, Rahul Bheke, displaying beautiful control and
making it look effortless, as he found the net leaving the much vaunted BFC
keeper, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu looking lost. The crowd went crazy with delight,
but didn’t have long to celebrate as less than five minutes later Miku scored
for Bangalore — right between Kattimani’s legs. The contrast of the moment
couldn’t have been more as silence greeted the equaliser, with only the
Bengaluru team celebrating. And then 13 minutes later Coro did it again. A beautiful,
long free-kick from Manuel Lanzarote Bruno, “Lanza”, found Bruno Pinheiro, who
headed the ball to Coro, well placed in front of the goal, making no mistakes
in scoring his second. At that point everyone watching the game knew they were
in for a brilliant night of football.
The second goal seemed to spur Lanza on even more,
impressive considering he’d been a live wire right from the start. His swarm
around the Bengaluru keeper resulted in Gurpreet losing his cool and shoving
him. For which Gurpreet was promptly red-carded — much to the excitement of the
home crowd. Lanza himself took the penalty, successfully sending the BFC
reserve keeper the wrong way, to send the Gaurs 3-1 up — much to the delight of
the crowd. “Now we’re home safe” crowed some of the young guns. But the more
experienced heads shook warningly, “Bangalore can score even with a 10-man
team. We need to be careful!” The buzz turned to discussing how Gurpreet,
believed to the most expensive Indian player in the ISL, needed to show more
restraint, with many excusing his aggression because of his youth. Not
surprisingly, Bangalore seemed defensive in the final 10 minutes of the first
half, leaving the young guns smug.
The second half started with a resurgent BFC. It was time
for the experienced watchers to sorrowfully nod “I told you so” as 10-man BFC
equalised within a space of five minutes.
Kattimani impressed me twice in the match… once at the start,
about 12 minutes into the game. His second moment of grace came 11 minutes into
the second half when he leaped to send a fine strike by BFC’s Miku over the
net. I had hardly finished cheering and clapping for him when BFC scored from
the ensuing corner, leaving Kattimani looking like an amateur. Five minutes
later all the Goan fans were distraught when BFC cut right through the Goan
defence as if it were asleep, with Miku once again coming through, catching an
onrushing Kattimani high and dry.
Just when it looked like FC Goa had managed to snatch a draw
from the jaws of victory, Coro came through again, saving the Gaurs from what
would have been a very embarrassing outcome on it’s home ground to a 10-man
visiting team. What a night it was — as the players walked of the field, Goan
fans could slow their thumping hearts and make plans for December 9, when FC
Goa take on Kerala Blasters FC in the second of nine games that will be played
at home.
FC Goa coach Sergio Lobera stayed with the “we are a team”
mantra when asked questions about concerns about Kattimani, and Coro’s
brilliant streak, refusing to single out individuals, either for praise or
blame. However, he did say, “We need to improve a lot with what we're doing,
particularly because we allowed a team with 10 men to come back from a two-goal
deficit,” showing that he is very well aware of gaping defence issues his team
faces.
