Railways, Goa in semi-finals

S Ayyappa Swamy

An early goal can prove very disadvantageous, especially in a must-win situation. Maharashtra learned it the hard way as they were held 1-1 by Railways, and Goa did not commit the same mistake while beating Punjab 1-0, as the quarter-final league matches in the National football championship, for the Santosh Trophy, ended on Monday.

In the semi-finals on Thursday, Railways, who made their way up from the pre-quarter-final league, will take on Goa, while Kerala, the Group A winners, meet Tamil Nadu.

Maharashtra got the goal they needed in the third minute of the match through a briliant header by S Venkatesh, who lunged to nod home a cross from Thomba Singh. But the defending champions paid the price for over-enthusiasm, letting their defence down just three minutes later to allow Manjinder Singh to equalise. Virender Singh compounded Maharasthra's agony by letting the ball slip from his hands.

From then on, it was a struggle all the way for Maharashtra, whose coach, Jamshed Nassiri, rung in some changes, incuding bringing on Jules Alberto in the midfield. But nothing worked out and the crucial goal that Maharashtra conceded against Services in the earlier quarter-final league match was to prove costly.

In fact, Maharashtra had lost their chance of advancing into the semi-finals on Saturday itself, when Adil Ansari netted Railways' third goal against Services, in the 88th minute of the match. It gave Railways a better goal average than them. Both teams finished on four points, but Railways had a 4-1 goal-difference while Maharashtra's was 4-2.

Maharashtra had three wonderful opportunities in the first five minutes, one of which resulted in the goal. On the other two occasions, striker Narender Meetei sent a header wide and Venkatesh, just before he scored the goal, struck the ball wide from just outside the small box. That miss proved very costly for Maharashtra, who also came about other chances through Tomba Singh, but goalkeeper Sangram Mukherjee, the currnet international, proved equal to the task.

Railways shut out Maharashtra in the second half by cutting off every move and rarely allowing the ball past the 35-yard mark. That, and the hard-running in the first half, completely put Maharashtra out of steam. And despite the best efforts of Venkatesh, who was outstanding, Tomba Singh, and Khalid Siddiqui, Maharashtra were not destined to make it to the semis.

Goa played a percentage game in the first half. Like Maharashtra, they too were in a must-win situation. Punjab had a healthy goal-average, having pumped in four against Manipur while Goa had won against the north-eastern side by just a solitary goal.

Goa trundled along harmlessly in the first half. They hardly showed any urgency. And that perhaps lured six-time champions Punjab into a false sense of comfort. There were not any great chances in the first stanza and the goodly crowd was being rocked into a gentle sleep.

But the Goans upped the ante in the second half. Using the width of the field, they bamboozled Punjab with darting runs and were rewarded with a goal, which eventually turned out to be the match-winner, in the 51st minute.

Substitute Jatin Bisht's centre from the right was heeled by Abhay Kumar, and Jose Colaco, who had come in for the experienced Mario Soares in the first-half, beat the advancing Punjab custodian Arvind Kumar with an angular placement.

Thursday's semi-final line-up:
2.15 pm: Kerala vs Tamil Nadu
5.15 p.m: Railways vs. Goa.

PHOTOGRAPHS: Jewella C Miranda