South United start in promising style
Midfielder G Vignesh spurred new entrants South United Football Club to a 2-0 victory over Army Service Corps (ASC) in their opening match of the BDFA Super Division League at the Bangalore Football Stadium here on Thursday.
Vignesh scored the opening goal and set up the second as the newly-formed club, coached by Raman Vijayan, clinched three points after a rather drab first session.
ASC had the only genuine chance of the first half. However, Jotin Singh blasted wide from inside the box in the 15th minute.
South United broke the deadlock through Vignesh in the 47th minute. The former Chirag United Kerala player swirled a corner-kick from the left and ASC goalkeeper Shantakumar completely missed the flight of the ball as it landed directly into the net.
Stung by the reversal, ASC took the attack to the opposition and Ramachandran forced a save from South United custodian Harpreet Singh in the 57th minute off a corner-kick. The Army side had another chance to draw level off another corner-kick in the very next minute. But Deepank Panth shot wide from the edge of the box.
South United doubled the lead in the 60th minute with Vignesh finding an unmarked Murugappan inside the penalty area off another corner-kick and the 24-year-old, a product of Raman Vijayan’s academy in Karaikudi, headed home.
It was one-way traffic from then on as South United took control. Striker Amoes was denied by Shantakumar in the 67th minute and in the very next the minute, he did well to tip over a rasping free-kick by Vignesh.
Amoes failed to find the target yet again in the 84th minute as his shot came off the post.
Coach Vijayan was relieved to have pocketed full points from the first match. “The first match is always tough. Matches against the Army sides are very tough as they play a very physical game. We could have won by a bigger margin,” he said.
Earlier, Jawahar Union rallied to hold BUFC 1-1 in the ‘A’ Division. Achyutha put BUFC ahead in the 36th minute, while Chintan restored parity for Jawahar Union in the 52nd minute.
Today’s matches: A Division: Bangalore Mars vs LRDE (1.00 pm); Super Division: DYSS vs KSP (3.00 pm).
