Calcutta: Prayag United SC had everything on Tuesday. They had a superior team, quite a few scoring opportunities and above all, a certain Carlos Hernandez, who according to the hype, is supposed to be a world-class striker from Costa Rica. But they didn’t have a goal.
Their opponents — Eastern Railway SC — in the CFL Premier Division match, at the Salt Lake Stadium, looked ordinary, but Chukwukere Henry’s extraordinary goal earned them a victory.
A shocker of a result for the ‘well-built’ United SC and a pleasant surprise for the Railwaymen. But that’s how the game is played, on the field and beyond. Even giants have to pay for profligacy.
The goal came in 75th minute and all credit goes Henry. Latching on to the ball near the centre cycle, Henry played a ‘wall’ pass with a teammate, outran United SC’s Anupam Sarkar and Dhanchandra Singh, and then slotted a diagonal grounder coolly past Sangram Mukherjee.
Before and after the goal depicted two different pictures of United SC. In the first 75 minutes the only notable effort that Sanjoy Sen’s wards managed was a powerful long-ranger from Mohammed Rafique which was thwarted by the horizontal.
Never for once did the men in purple looked like a team which wanted to win. Even when the midfielders failed to knit ground passes, the ‘wings’ did not flap. In fact, one Eastern Railway ploy which deflated United SC’s efforts was never to be lenient with the ball-possession. The chased everything and that helped them hunt down the mighty-on-paper United SC.
After the goal, there was urgency among Sanjoy’s players, but unfortunately there was no Ranty Martins (injured), who could change moves into goals.
What was Carlos doing? Well, he weighed heavy on his team. He is certainly a heavyweight… Some would say overweight!
Teams
Eastern Railway SC: Koushik Ghosh, Avik Guha, Babun Kar, Parvez Alam, Dipankar Ghosh, Antony Soren, Ifeanyi Ike Samuel, Bapi Halder (Chandan Turi, 68), Joydeep Bose (Avijit Nayak, 89), Goutam Paul, Chukwukere Henry
Prayag United SC: Sangram Mukherjee, Chinta Chandrasekhar Rao, Dhanachandra Singh, Anupam Sarkar, Deepak Mondal, Joychandra Singh, Asif K (Vineeth, 46), Lalkamal Bhowmick, Gouranga Biswas (Mohammed Rafique, 43), Carlos, Sankar Oraon
Referee: Animesh Biswas
