Viva Kerala overcame JCT Phagwara by a first half goal scored by their foreign striker, Reuben Senyo in the Round 10 of the ONGC I-League 2009-10 match played at the EMS Stadium, Calicut.
JCT were forced to make all the 3 substitutions as injuries hit them very early. The first one to leave the field was Daljit Singh who was replaced by Harish Sharma in the 11th minute of the play. They had to substitute their goal keeperKaramjith Singh after he clashed with Senyo.
JCT started the game with some good movements but lost their play with the time. In the 21st minute, Reuben Senyo made full use of the opportunity to score when he was positioned in front of the goal with just the keeper to beat. He dribbled past the keeper and kept his cool to put the ball in the back of the net.
JCT never recovered from the strike from Viva Kerala. In the 28th minute, Reuben Senyo again found himself in front of the goal but shot the ball over the goal. Referee waved away a penalty kick appeal from the Viva players in the 40th minute. JCT were also rightly denied a penalty kick by the referee around the one hour mark.
Just after the second half of the game restarted, JCT’s Harish Sharma who came on to the game as a substitute was rushed to the nearby hospitals after getting a knock on the head while jumping for the ball.
Viva Kerala dominated the second half apart from some solo attempts from JCT’s foreigner player Pepp Orji. His shots were well dealt by the Viva Kerala custodian Shahinlal M.
Viva Kerala registered their second win in this year’s I-League while JCT’s poor run of form continues.
Adwaidh Rajan for footballkerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 17 January 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.
Comments · 4
oooolaaaaa olaaa ooooleeee viva vivaaaaaa.......
Viva just escaped from JCT. As in most of their last matches Viva conceded in the last minutes holding on to a 1 goal lead. As all of you know Viva has one striker to rely on and thats Senyo and if he is out of form then there are no goals. So they should really look to get 1 more striker. Like Lajong who bought Anil from Nepal. Viva should also try for Ali Ashfaq or Fazeel Ibrahim or Ahmed Thoriq from Maldives or Jayasuriya or Channa from Sri Lanka and these players will also cost less and had a great performance in Saff Cup. Or atleast take for loan Zubair from Chandni or Ebin Rose from Titanium or Asif Saheer or Abdul Hakkim from SBT or Anil Kumar from KSEB. Anyway whats the use of commenting here on Footballkerala. Are Viva Mgmt. watching. I hope they are...
Football Lover,
You can take it other way too ...
most of the matches Viva took the lead and then at the last moment lost it!
Against Dempo they were leading and last 20 minute conceded 3. Against Mahindra too Viva went on lead if I am not wrong. So these are the best teams here right now. If it was Viva escaping last minute with some goal from somewhere we can say they are living in Danger.
Yes they need a good striker. Reuben so far is not impressive. And Shibinlal also hasnt found the net. They have a striker in bench who is recovering, and the league still hasn't reached half way. Hopefully these two might click at some stage soon and hope Sabeeth is definitely going to be better.
Viva has already registered 28/29 players out of 30 quota. So its a tough call to register the last player.
Its a good team and can hold on to the league and finish in mid table.
Dear Football Lover,
Viva definitely lacks a striker (read goal-scorer).
Any idea what is the asking fee for the players you mentioned? (I'm assuming you have that info since you mentioned that these players cost less!) I would be suprised if you said that without any clue on player salaries.
Anil Gurung was signed by Shilling Lajong for Rs. 4 million in a three-year deal. Now I would not consider that as "less" like you remarked.
Moreover, the players from Maldives and Sri Lanka are not made available by their respective federations due to national commitments (unfortunately!).
Regarding local players, none of the players you mentioned are available on loan. Chandni, SBT, Malabar and Titanium are preparing for I-League Second Division. Anil Kumar was not allowed by his current employers (KSEB) to play in the I-League. In fact he had lucrative offers from Chirag and Salgaocar. Surprised that you never mentioned PC Riju who played for the Tamil Nadu and won the Golden Boot at the last Santosh Trophy (he had great offers from MB, EB, etc. but was more interested in a job offer from Railways!).
While Rueben Senyo is definitely not Viva's answer to Okolie Odafa in terms of goals and Anil Gurung in terms of charisma and flair, he has scored more goals than Anil Gurung (both in terms of numbers and goals per match percentage).
I doubt if what you suggested is a possible solution. A viable option for the Viva management will be to find a suitable scouting agency to provide them access to better players.
According to reliable sources, some members of the Viva management and coaching staff do visit footballkerala.com on a regular basis :-)
Keep those comments coming!
Regards,
Jason