Playing with determination, Salgaocar FC, Goa emerged champions of the 4th CEM Gold Cup 2019 after defeating Sankata Club, Nepal by 4-2 at the Karbi Anglong Sports Association Stadium (KASA) on Thursday.
Salgaocar FC, Goa also became the first club from outside to claim the title of the tournament.
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They were among the 12 clubs within the country and overseas participating in the tournament.
Salgaocar FC started their campaign from knock-out round of Cluster-I.
It was an entertaining match as both the teams displayed a strong attacking.
At the 45th minute of first half, it was waste of time for both Salgaocar and Sankata as they could not score.
But during injury time of 45+1 minutes, Salgaocar FC scored the first goal through Devewdra Murfaonkar.
At the end of first half, Salgaocar were leading by 1-0.
After changing side in the second half, green Salgaocar boys went for stronger attacks.
They were much shifter than the blue Nepal boys and took control of the ball.
With their shift and fast ball passing tactics, the Goa boys took control of the ball.
The forward got good of their chances to strike but failed in their attempts. It was during 58th minute, Devewdra Murfaonkar scored his second goal for Goa.
The third and fourth goals for Goa came through Ronaldo Oliveira in the 67th minute and Sanson Pereira in 80th minute.
To the frustration of Sankata boys, they were reduced to 10 men in the remaining 20 minutes of the match as their overseas recruit forward Ndemba Owona was awarded red card for foul play and challenging the referee.
In last ten minutes, the blue Nepal boys could break the defence of the green Salgaocar boys and the result was Maxwell Ellon in the 82nd minute scored the first goal.
The second goal for Nepal came during the stoppage time of 86th minute through Bishnu Gurung.
The blues’ attempt in last ten minutes could only reduce the tally of Salgaocar and finally the match ended with a win by Salgaocar 4-2.
The goalkeeper of Salgaocar, Jason D Mello, was adjudged the beset goalkeeper of the match and was awarded with a trophy and cash prize.
The champions team Salgaocar FC received a cash prize of Rs. 2 lakh and a trophy given away by the chief executive member (CEM) of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council (KAAC) and president, KASA, Tuliram Ronghang while the runners-up team Sankata Club was awarded with a trophy along with a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh, which were given away by KAAC chairman Longki Timung.