Salgaocar and Sporting look to recreate the old Goa Derby ambiance in I-League season ender
THE GOA DERBY is no longer what it used to be. There used to be a time when an I-League clash between Dempo, Salgaocar or some other stalwart club from the football crazy state would mean shops being shut early and a throng of excited supporters outside the ticket windows. Fights between opposing groups of fans wasn't uncommon either.
All that excitement has waned over the last few years. ISL franchise FC Goa has caught popular attention, and lack of promotion and glamour has forced the I-League clubs away from the limelight. Then the Tilak Maidan in Vasco went under renovations, forcing clubs to play at Fatorda. That made things even worse.
But this time around, Salgaocar have gone back to Tilak Maidan and have seen their average attendance go up several times. Sporting Clube de Goa, still playing at Fatorda, are also reporting some attendance increase. And now that the two are going up against each other on the last weekend of the season at Tilak Maidan, it's expected to be the highest attended Goa Derby in recent times; although objectively the numbers aren't going to be too high.
But as a last hurrah in the league season, this game is expected to put on a fairly decent show for the fans in Goa. Sporting Clube de Goa have had an okay - if occasionally bumpy - season and they are sitting on 19 points, 4th in the league table. Salgaocar meanwhile have just saved themselves from relegation by beating Aizawl FC away from home, and they are 6th on the table, on 16 points. The two teams played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg, which means if Salgaocar manage to win this one, they will have a chance to finish the league in the 4th place, above their local rivals.
SCG head coach Mateus Costa knows what's at stake. In the pre-match presser he said,
“The derbies are always high pressure games; it’s not just the 4th position which is at stake here. With the Federation Cup looming around we would defiantly want to win tomorrow. This can be a huge moral boost for the players ahead of the Federation Cup and also it would mean we play the second leg at home which is a huge advantage.”
Sporting Clube de Goa started well in the league but hit a bump; they have won just 1 of their last 8 matches. And without Odafa up front their attack doesn't look that good at all. But in their last 3 matches, they have gotten away draws out of Aizawl FC and East Bengal and beaten Shillong Lajong at home. So they are coming into the game riding on some decent performances.
Salgaocar beat Aizawl FC away from home to escape the threat of relegation. Darryl Duffy, their main striker, picked up his 4th yellow in that game, and in the next game Salgaocar looked helpless as they surrendered at Kanteerava as Bengaluru FC lifted the league title by beating them 2-0. But Duffy is back for this game, and the Greens are looking to put up a fight in front of their home fans. Santosh Kashyap, whose coaching helped Salgaocar rise above relegation threat after a dismal start to the season, said,
“We come here after playing two tough matches; we did well in Aizawl but couldn’t execute our plan in Bengluru. This is a different game; we play at home so that’s definitely an advantage also the team looks to be in a good shape. Being our last match we want to achieve a respectable position in the table, so yes a win here can take us to the 4th spot.”
There's a chance that these two clubs will end up facing each other sooner rather than later, so both will have that in mind as well as they take to the field tomorrow to end what has been a difficult league season for both the clubs with an intense on-field contest that can, hopefully, recapture some of the heat of that Goa Derbies used to exude in the old days.
