MARGAO: A capacity crowd of 35,000, deafening noise, and a determined Sporting Clube de Goa team could not stop Mahindra United from winning the 27th Alchemist Federation Cup in Goa on Sunday.
The Mumbai side put up a brilliant performance to edge Sporting 2-1 in a thrilling encounter. Both the goals came off the boot of Jose Ramirez Barretto, but it was Mahindra goalkeeper Sandip Nandy who stole the show with his super performance.
Sporting were on the attack right from the word go. But the defense line of Mahindra stubbornly blocked every move that came their way. NS Manju, Mahindra’s central defender, in particular, didn’t give an inch to Sporting’s deadly Nigerian duo of Edeh Chidi and Dudu Omagbemi.
But it was Mahindra who drew first blood through Brazilian Jose Ramirez Barretto. Barretto scored his fifth goal of the tournament to give Mumbai outfit the lead in the 36th minute. From the moment the ball touched Barretto’s boot, it was going in only one direction. A brilliant right-footer, and the ball crashed into the back of the net. Suddenly, there was a stunned silence at the Nehru Stadium.
Derrick Pereira, coach of Mahindra United, may have gone for the lemon break with calm nerves. But 13 minutes into the second half and Sporting came right back in, through a penalty awarded against Mahesh Gawli for bringing down Sporting captain Dudu Omagbemi. However, replays clearly showed it was a good tackle and Gawli got to the ball first. Dudu, who already had two goals in the tournament going into the finals, made no mistake to slam home his third from the spot.
Thereafter, it was Mahindra goalkeeper Sandip Nandy’s outstanding performance that kept the Mumbai club in the match. The goalkeeper was in stellar form, executing some brilliant saves. A flying dive that just about managed to ward off the ball stood out as one of the best, if not the best save of the tournament.
The regulation time ended 1-1. Even the first half of extra time failed to break the deadlock. Just when it looked like the second half would move the same way and the match will head for the tie-breaker, Barretto and Steven Dias came to haunt Sporting for the final time in the tournament.
In the final minute of the second-half extra time, Dias’s pass found Barretto perfectly placed, and the Brazilian tapped the ball over the charging goalkeeper to give Mahindra United the title. The Mumbai side now has two wins from four finals. The icing on the cake was Barretto also emerging as the top-scorer of the tournament with six goals.
