Rangdajied United Fail to Crack the Sporting Clube Code

Panaji, October 25: Rangdajied United lost 3-0 to Sporting Clube de Goa in a 6th round encounter of the I-League, in Goa on Thursday. The loss means Rangdajied remain at the bottom of the table with two points from the six games.

Coach Santosh Kashyap made two changes to the side that lost 3-0 to Mohammedan Sporting in the last game, with Sandesh Gadkari and Pratik Chowdhary coming in for Edmar Figueira and Nagen Tamang.

It was, however, Sporting Clube who started the brighter of the two sides, with the Flaming Oranje seeing more of the ball in the opening exchanges, while Rangdajied tried to fend off the hosts’ attacks.

In the 13th minute, the blues fell behind by a goal after the hosts scored via midfielder Ogba Kalu. The Nigerian made no mistake as he headed in a well-taken corner by Sporting’s Cajetan Fernandes, thus pegging Rangdajied back early on in the game.

As Rangdajied tried to recover from the goal, and were trying to sew a few attacks of their own, Sporting Clube struck a vital blow in the 31st minute. After being awarded another corner kick, the hosts had defender Deepak Devrani inside the box to brilliantly head in a ball from Cajetan Fernandes, and double the Goan side’s lead.

Rangdajied went into a damage control mode, and adopted a more cautious approach in the game. The score remained 2-0 to Sporting, as the teams went into the half-time break.

In the second half, the blues tried their best to come back into the game, and had some chances of their own. Coach Kashyap brought in youngster T Lalnunpuia after the breather, and the Mizo attacker had a positive influence in the game. In the 69th minute, Lalnunpuia had a well-taken free-kick saved by the Sporting custodian, as the score remained 2-0 in the hosts’ favour.

Two minutes later, Sporting, however, went 3-0 ahead, after striker Boima Jerry Karpeh rounded off Rangdajied goalkeeper Surjay Pariyar, to brilliantly score from a tight angle. The goal looked like the final nail in the coffin for Rangdajied, and the blues failed to do any significant damage to the hosts after that goal.

Goalkeeper Pariyar, meanwhile, was called into action several times, and made some decent saves throughout the game, including an excellent save from Victorino Fernandes in the 80th minute.

The hosts held on to their lead in the last few minutes, as the game marked the second consecutive 3-0 loss for the blues.

Rangdajied United will next play Pune FC at the Balewadi Sports Complex in Pune, this coming Sunday.

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