Sumit Passi fires a brace as Sporting bury Lajong in a 5-2 fiery encounter at Fatorda
SPORTING CLUBE DE GOA consolidated their position as one of the top-half clubs in the I-League table by crushing Shillong Lajong 4-1 at Fatorda today.
The move that paid off dividends for the home team was the move to hand 20 year old Sumit Passi - who was recently included in the Indian national team squad by Stephen Constantine - his first start at the club.
Lajong ran into trouble early and by half-time the game had run out of their hands. Sporting got the lead in the second minute itself thanks to a Rowlin Borges free-kick that allowed Mehrajuddin Wadoo to put his height to good use and find the mark.
Some 20 minutes into the game it was the youngster Sumit Passi's moment to shine. Pratesh Shirodkar sent in the ball, once again the marking inside the box for Lajong was off, and Passi headed it in.
2-0 down early on in the game, the home team made it even worse for themselves when forward Uilliams - the hero of the evening they held Mohun Bagan - put a foot too harsh on Sporting's Mahmoud Al Amenah and earned himself a straight red. A man down, Lajong were now facing a serious turn downhill.
And within minutes Passi struck again. It was a team effort: Ganesh Thakur sent in a cross, Pratesh Shirodkar executed it, but Vishal Kaith made a save and the ball flew towards Passi. The latter made a simple finish. 3-0.
The second half began in a similar fashion and Lajong were more or less in damage control mode. But all that wasn't helping them so much as young defender Subhashish Bose got on to another Rowlin Borges free kick to make it 4-0. It was the third time Lajong had been had by a set-piece, and the flaws in their defensive structure were now laid bare.
But it was Penn Orji who caused something of a turnaround; almost on his own. He ran deep into the Sporiting half and defenders were closing in on him but he managed to shoot through an extremely narrow gap and found the mark; it was the best goal of the game yet. 4-1.
And almost immediately Penn struck again. He got into a scoring range some 35 yards out, caught the keeper out of position, and let fly. It was 4-2, and although Lajong were seemingly making a comeback in the run of play, they had almost run out of time. There were only 4 minutes left on the clock.
And unfortunately for them their chances to make it a close affair was ruined by a foul on Rowlin Borges inside the penalty box. Mahmoud Al Amenah took the resulting penalty and duly scored. The final score read 5-2.
The win sends Sporting Clube de Goa to 18 points from 14 matches. They can breathe a sigh of relief as they finally seeem to have left the relegation pack about 3 points behind. The rise of Sumit Passi, and having a forward line that can create 5 goals without Odafa, is one of the significant takeaways they will have from this match.
Shillong Lajong, who are on 15 points from 14 matches, had their good run against Aizawl and Mohun Bagan finally halted. Although they are not explicitly threatened by relegation at the moment, they are not particularly safe either. And they have a tough trip to Mumbai coming up, followed by a massively difficult match against East Bengal at home. Which means Thangboi Singto and his boys will have to go all out to get full points at Cooperage, or they might have their survival in the top division severely threatened going into 24th April.
