It was baptism by fire for the two newly promoted I-League teams, Shillong Lajong Football Club (SLFC) and Pune FC on the opening day of the 114th IFA Shield here on Sunday.
Playing at this level for the first time as a unit, both teams lost to experienced sides, Mohd. Sporting and Air-India; while Sporting beat SLFC 1-0, Air-India defeated Pune FC 2-1.
Mohammedan Sporting 1-0 Lajong FC
Goals: 1-0 Dipendu Biswas (14')
Mohammedan Sporting
1-Nasim Akhtar; 39-Zoheb Hassan, 4-Peter Odafe, 12-Anupam Sarkar, 5-Farooq Haidar; 8-Satyajit Bose (59' Nilendra Dewan), 16-Sovan Chakraborty (51' Lalchuan Awma), 40-Babin Biswas, 27-A. Jyothi Kumar [C] (82' Amritpal Singh); 28-Eduardo da Silva Escobar, 10- Dipendu Biswas
Lajong FC
1-Gumpe Rime; 2-Aibor Khongjee [C], 3-Weild M. Passah, 17-Ayeni Bidemi Daniel, 19-Rojit Singh; 11-Boithang Haokip, 8-Samson Ramengmawia, 18-Kryshan Lyngshing, 23-Roming Thanga (Niwand Gatpoh); 14-Marlanki Suting (87' Racy Lalremmawia); 26-Michael Bassey
Sporting was lucky to face a side that has never played at this level in the past. The Kolkata side made the most of the encounter with early aggression and went ahead in the 14th minute through an opportunistic goal by Dipendu Biswas.
SLFC was tentative to begin with and allowed a lot of space and time for Sporting to control the play.
The winner came after Biswas failed to connect a back volley off Eduardo Escobars chip. Eduardo then foxed right-back Aibor Khongjee with a deft dodge and drove a shallow centre to the top of the inside box. Surprisingly, the SLFC defence stood static hoping to catch Biswas offside but the striker knocked the ball in.
SLFC got into the groove, used space nicely and played a good passing game.
At the stroke of half an hour, Samson Ramengmawia hit the Sporting bar with a firm drive. Michael Bassey responded to the rebound with a feeble shot.
After Eduardo failed to head home what looked like the best chance of the match off a Biswas cross from the left, the Brazilian failed to convert a penalty in the 66th minute allowing Gumpe Rime dive to his left and stop the low shot.
As the game progressed, SLFC made at least three serious attempts but Sporting custodian Naseem Akhtar came up with good saves.
Pune FC 1-2 Air India Goals: 0-1 N.D. Opara (10'), 1-1 Arata Izumi (48'), 1-2 Ravinder Singh (56', pen)
Pune FC:
13-Narsimhan Balaji; 2-Othallo Tabia, 3-Caitano Costa, 27-Chika Wali, 17-Sergei Tokov; 6-Shanmugam Venkatesh, 18-Asim Hassan (69' G. Vignesh), 21-Godwin Diego Franco, 8-Arata Izumi (83' Manoj T.M.); 10-Djidjia Douhou Pierre (40' 16-Sunil Kumar); 11-Jeje Lalpekhlua
Air India:
1-Arnab Das Sharma; 20-Henry Gangte, 5-Irungbam Khelemba Singh, 6-Uttam Leishangthem Singh, 3-Ravinder Singh; 18-Vijith Shetty, 9-Tapan Maity, 22-Praneel Mendon, 10-Soccor Velho (90' 2-Napoleon Singh); 28-N.D. Opara (90' 11-Hringsolal Thomte), 26-Mohammed Dada Nabeel
Air-India looked an organised side in the first half in which it went ahead in the 10th minute.
Tapan Maity’s pass from left saw Nigerian N. Obuisi Opara head towards the goal and goalkeeper N. Balaji failed to get hold of the ball and it went to Opara whose left-footer flew in.
The Pune team’s Jeje Lalpekhlua, who missed two sitters in the 35th and 41st minutes, produced the pass that enabled Arata Izumi connect a right-footer firmly to restore parity.
As Pune FC began to assert itself, Air-India’s match-winner came through a penalty. Opara’s shot at the goal hit Caitano Costa’s hand and Ravinder Singh converted the resultant spot kick.
The tournament will resume on Tuesday after a day of rest.
Source: The Hindu
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Monday 31 August 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.