In a not so evenly poised fixture, SC East Bengal emerged victorious by fine margins thanks to a memorable brace by Naorem Mahesh Singh. Two goals, one at the beginning and the other at the latter stages of the first half were enough to hand the Red and Gold their first victory of the campaign.
The Goans were the firm favourites before the match started when the stats clearly spoke that they had won twice and drawn once against the Kolkata Giants. This was also the debut match of Mario Riveira in Hero ISL. Coming into the match, many thought Goa would be winning comfortably, and with the same motive they did start the game when a lot of their attacks were coming into the East Bengal penalty area. But the deadlock was broken by Naorem Mahesh, when a back pass from Edu Bedia couldn’t find Anwar Ali as onrushing Naorem stole the ball brilliantly and sent it past Dheeraj with ease. The early lead at ninth minute of the game brought smiles to the people sitting in the dugout and the millions of fans watching the game in their homes.
But the lead was soon given away, when a brilliant team effort by the Goans found the back of the net in 37th minute. It was a fantastic passing movement which reached Noguera, who sent a through ball past Adil Khan towards Ortiz, and Ortiz placed the ball brilliantly in the far too corner. It was the sixth time that SC East Bengal had given away a lead, which has already cost them 11 points in the campaign!
But this time the story was going to be different. Mario had already instructed his players to press high, the reason for which often the team was switching between 4-3-3 and flat 4-4-2 formations. It was Naorem and Semboi who were pressing their defense line, and thanks to that another defensive blunder led to Naorem having the ball, who blasted it onto the inside of the crossbar this time, and the ball bounced off from inside the goal at 42nd minute. A brace from Naorem this secured a victory for his team.
The Goan attacks were repeatedly stopped by the collective effort of the whole team; however Adil and Prce were brilliant tonight. Prce rescued a goal line save, and Adil was dictating the entire defense time to time. Ankit looked very mistake prone, but was often covered for his mistakes by his teammates. The chemistry between Sidoel and Angousana as two holding midfielders also was crucial in defending the attacks. Overall, a fantastic defensive and counter attacking display gifted the first three points to the Red and Gold’s in this campaign.
