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Vasco keeps winning

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE Dec. 23. Defence has been Indian Telephone Industries' (ITI) strength. Today it proved its undoing as well, as two defensive errors caused the local side's downfall against Goa's Vasco Sports Club.

The 2-1 scoreline enabled Vasco continue its winning streak in the National Football League, sponsored by Oil PSU, at the football stadium here on Monday.

Vasco, with this win its fourth in eight matches (lost one and drawn the rest), has aggregated 15 points while ITI, which crashed to its sixth loss in eight matches, has just two points.

Searching for its first win in this edition, ITI played the aggressor right from the start. But all the rampant running came to nought with neither Iraqi import Ali Hasan Mohammed nor Ibrahim Karim Alhassan could dent the tight marking Vasco defence.

After a couple of pot shots at either end, ITI had a fine chance but following a Raghuveer Singh cross, Ibrahim Alhassan shot over. Jules Alberto, however, did not err for Vasco giving direction to an Abhay Kumar flag kick that sailed over Gumpe Rime and into the ITI goal for the lead.

The second session was played at a feverish pace. In the 61st minute, Satish Minz earned his second yellow of the match for a blatant foul on Raguveer Singh and was sent to the stands by referee Syed Yeasin of WIFA, who also booked Vasco goalkeeper and captain Rogerio Ramos, for deliberately bringing down Seth Osei in the 86th minute just outside the box.

In the 63rd minute, ITI's exuberance resulted in Vasco's second goal. A Marcos Pereira square looked harmless until ITI wingback Akshay Das thought otherwise and slotted into his own goal in an attempt to clear. Goalkeeper Gume looked on haplessly as the ball deflected off his legs.

With a 2-0 cushion, Vasco turned a wee bit complacent and it was then that the pint-sized Raghuveer Singh turned the heat on the rivals.

The fleet footed midfield was all over the place and floated in crosses that had the otherwise compact Ramos diving allround to keep his citadel clean. Twice Ramos did, first fisting away a Najeeb header and then dived to his left to keep away a Firoz point blank shot. But in the 79th minute there was little chance that Ramos had when a Raghuveer floater was met well by Najeeb, the powerful header crashing into the net.

Najeeb, who came in for Ali Hasan, then twice in succession tested Ramos and Vasco goal survived by the barest of threads and even Ramos' exit with a `red' did not prove lucky for the ITI. Vasco's second goalkeeper Saji Joy, who replaced midfielder Riston Rodrigues, brought off a series of saves in the last three minutes to ensure Vasco finish with a full set of points.

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