Lowly-placed Sporting Clube de Goa and Viva Kerala played out a goalless draw and shared points in the sixth round of the ONGC I-League football match at the Corporation stadium here on Wednesday.
Handicapped by the absence of their main striker Wisdom Abbey (Ghana), Viva looked a fragile lot right from the start and never threatened to break the strong rival defence.
To their credit, Sporting, in search of a win, played better soccer but could not translate their effort into goals in either half.
The golden chance of the match came for the visitors in the 16th minute when Bisheshwer Singh, Elijah Obagbemiro and captain Mohammed Gafari together swooped on the ball near the post with Viva goalkeeper MV Nelson moving out dangerously. Sporting had themselves to blame for not converting that chance.
Ten minutes later, Awadu, coming in place of the injured Abbey, fed the ball to Nigerian Baba Tunde but the latter’s powerful left cross hit was saved by Baratto Luis.
After a barren first half, both teams played cautiously, making short passes and waiting for the other to make the mistake. Viva were quite unlucky when Awadhu’s smashing hit in the 76th minute coming off a free kick hit the right post.
Despite bringing in substitutes at regular intervals, Viva could not succeed in finding the all-important goal as the Sporting defence kept them on tenterhooks till the final whistle. Viva continue to remain in the fourth spot with nine points behind current leaders Dempo (14), JCT (12) and Churchill Brothers (10), while Sporting finished with three points. Viva will play JCT in their next home match on December 29.
Mahindras held
At Margao, goalkeeper Milagrio Medeira’s sterling performance under the bar enabled Salgaocar Sports Club to hold Mahindra United to a goalless draw, adds UNI.
With this drawn match, Mahindra increased their points tally to seven points and Salgaocar remained on three points from six outings each. Salgaocar almost scored in the 10th minute but Biju Kumar’s header missed the target.
The Jeepmen too had couple of chances to move ahead. The first was in the the 22nd minute when Steven Dias floated a pass to Andrew, whose header went straight to rival goalkeeper Medeira. Mahindra’s Harpreet Singh was adjudged the man of the match.
