By Stanislaus D’Souza
Margao: Not for nothing is Odafa Okolie the most expensive player in Indian football. With a striker like him, opposition defenders have no room for error, especially when he has gone without a goal of his own making for over 80 minutes. The more frustrated he is, the hungrier he gets. And on Sunday the Churchill Brothers striker made Dempo Sports Club pay a heavy price for two defensive blunders, the defending champs turning a 1-2 deficit into a 3-2 victory in this seventh round I-League clash at the Nehru Stadium Fatorda.
Dempo looked to be cruising smoothly until their first major howler in the 81st minute, when Anthony Pereira pushed feebly to goalkeeper Tyson Caiado from 20 yards out despite having a few of his players within shouting distance. Odafa, who was nowhere in sight, noticed the feeble push and took the defence by surprise as they watched the ball with spectator interest, roll nonchalantly towards the waiting ’keeper. He pounced on it even as goalkeeper Tyson — who had a great game — rushed out to thwart, but the ball fell nicely at the feet of co-striker Felix Chimaokwu who dispatched it off in a jiffy.
Then, two minutes from the end, Odafa picked a Naoba Singh long ball and scored from close range, to bring the near-packed stadium on its feet. That was the moment of truth that Churchill was waiting for. They proved that the team had come of age and have the wherewithal to end Dempo’s domination over them in the I-League.
This was Churchill’s first win over Dempo in a National league clash in seven years.
It was a match Dempo should have won. Not that they played their best, but they had the opportunity to kill the match in the first half itself when the mercurial Ranty Martins came out of his shell to pump in two spectacular goals to wipe out Churchill’s 9thminute lead, achieved from a penalty scored by Odafa after Ogba Kalu was brought down in the box by Cresson Antao.
Dempo meant business right from kick-off when they took a sniff at the goal in the very first minute when Sunil Chhetri’s nod off Anthony’s cross went inches wide.
But Ranty’s double strike — a brilliant glancing header in the 22nd minute and a mesmerising overhead bicycle kick in the 32nd from promptings by Anthony and Marcus Peixoto respectively — had them yearning for more. However, Anthony blew away two golden opportunities between which Dempo goalkeeper Tyson came up with a brilliant save to thwart Odafa.
Ranty should have completed his hat-trick by the 57th minute, but he and Beto were a wee bit late in meeting Anthony’s curling goalmouth cross from the right after the crossover.
It took another miss by Dempo, when Chhetri sent Ranty’s square pass inches wide, before their defence faltered and succumbed to the pressure from a charged-up Felix and Odafe.
However, it must be said if Churchill managed to squeeze home it was probably because coach Carlos Roberto Pereira da Silva brought in the right changes at the right moment. He pulled out a woefully off-colour Khentang Paite as early as in the 37th minute, Nascimento Silveira (61st) and then Vashum (73rd). The advent of Charan Rai, Dan Ito and Lalrinfela breathed new life in the middle and took the game away from Dempo.
The same cannot be said about Dempo, whose midfield functioned only from the flanks. And with Beto not being his usual self and Climax Lawrence a mere passenger, the pendulum was bound to swing in their rivals’ favour.