PANAJI: Two goals in the second half by Rayan Menezes and Jovial Dias helped FC Goa Dev Team round off their campaign in the inaugural edition of the RF Development League with their fourth win of the tournament, this time against Reliance Foundation Young Champs in an end-to-end action-packed game.
Overall, Dev Team head coach Deggie Cardozo made two changes to his playing XI that started in the win against Mumbai City earlier this week. Danstan Fernandes replaced Brison Fernandes while Delton Colaco took Velroy Fernandes’ place.
The Boys in Orange started well, and could have opened the scoring in the first minute itself, had Mevan Dias’ shot not missed the target by a narrow margin. Their next big chance came in the 17th minute. Vasim Inamdar made a brilliant run before he played the ball across to Jovial whose shot flew over the bar.
FC Goa goalkeeper Hrithik Tiwari was called to action for the first time in the 22nd minute, when he made stunning one-handed save to deny RFYC. He made five more saves during the match in what was another note-worthy performance.
Goal-scorer Rayan was initially hit by misfortune in the 36th minute, when his long-range attempt from near the halfway line struck the crossbar. The centre-back then made amends in the 77th minute.
A Danstan free-kick from deep was parried away by the RFYC goalkeeper but the ball fell to Mevan who played it back into the box. By then, the goalkeeper was off his line, so all that Rayan had to do was to place his shot into the net, which he did with ease to give the Gaurs a well-deserved lead.
FC Goa then doubled their lead in the 88th minute through Jovial. A long ball from Hrithik flew all the way to the opponent’s box and Jovial capitalised on the resultant confusion to beat the goalkeeper and slot the ball into the net.
The Gaurs hence made it three wins in a row and climbed to third place on the league table with 13 points. With the victory, Deggie Cardozo’s boys have also wrapped up their RF Development League campaign on a positive note.
