UGC 35TH QUARTER FINAL MATCH REPORT.

NYC score in the depth to eliminate INDIAN STRIKERS

This match was officiated by Edward, Rosario, Roland and Arnold. The match started with the ball see-sawing around both teams and no team was able to take control. Navelim had the first shot of the game when Joquaim launched one over the goal. Navelim settled in the game and began organizing successful attacks. Indian Strikers had a few chances, but the Navelim defence did not allow the Indian Strikers a lot of room to take shots. Their best chance in the first half came when Jagadesh through ball fell nicely for Muneer but his shot was saved by keeper, Brito. Muneers freekick later was tipped out by Brito again. The goalkeepers at both ends were busy in the first half. Towards the end of first half, Navelim missed an open goal and the Indian Strikers were lucky to end the half goaless.

The Indian Strikers struck early in the second half when Noufol scored from a corner. The Strikers did not relax after the first goal and they continued posing a threat towards Navelim’s goal. Navelim had fought back to make a comeback from two goals down in their first game of the tournament and were finding themselves in the same position again. Christino Pires headed in from a free kick to bring the game level. Navelim stepped up the pressure and began to look for the winner. Indian Strikers were upto the challenge and continued fighting till the end.
No.7 Byju of Indian Strikers caught Navelim goalkeeper as usual outside his line and tried a long range effort but it was sent too high. On the other side a superb volley from # 8 Ferrao of NYC hit the crossbar. A header from # 14 Alfred Pires of Navelim finished the game in the dying minutes of extra time and with that eliminated Indian Strikers from the tournament despite putting in a great performance. Navelim will face United Friends Club for a place in the final.

DHL continue good form in the tournament to beat C.R.C

C.R.C played their first game of their tournament this week and sprung straight into action by having two shorts on target in the first five minutes. DHL began to settle in the game and organize their attack. Their first chance came from a free kick but it was sent too high. DHL increased the tempo by increasing the attacks down the line and kept the C.R.C keeper busy forcing him to make plenty of saves. Sony Gomes of CRC nearly found Angelo to take the lead but he failed to convert to put them ahead. Angelo then provided some nice crosses from the right wing but some fine defending by DHL kept the score goalless at the first half.

The second half was going to be a different story with Terrance Dsouza of DHL scored from a nice cross of Jose. C.R.C replied with a Sony Gomes shot saved by the keeper but #22 Seby Fernandes was there to slot it in to level the game. Both the teams were playing constructive soccer which was a delight for everyone at the field to watch. Cruz Silva displayed some fine individual skill to score DHL’s second goal of the match towards the end of the second half. The CRC defense failed to block his shot which resulted in the score being 2-0.
DHL defended well in the rest of the game and did not allow C.R.C to level the game. The match was officiated by Jerry, Joe, Arnold and Tony. DHL will now meet GOA Maroons in the next week’s semi-final game.

GOA MAROONS MARCH ON TO THE SEMI-FINALS

The fourth week of the 35th UGC tourney started with the first match Goa Maroons taking on KGA. The match started at 7:15 am with GOA Maroons first wave of attack resulting in a penalty two minutes into the game. Ian D’souza stepped up and took a calm penalty to put Goa Maroons into the lead. Goa Maroons took advantage of their early advantage and were soon rewarded when the KGA goalkeeper failed to make a regulation save, allowed #20 Philip Dias to nod an easy one into the goal to make the score 2-0 after ten minutes. KGA tried to get back in the game, but every time they would Goa Maroons defenders would be there to shut them out. In the first half, both the team’s maintained equal possession, but the half was clearly won by Goa Maroons. Kenedy of Goa Maroons took a nice long range shot forcing the KGA keeper to make a good save. The match was played with a lot of hot tempers flying across the pitch. There were a lot of fouls committed in the first half and the referee was forced to show three yellow cards in the first half and one red card to Kenedy in the second half. Goa Maroons will be without Kenedy, one of the top scorers in the competition for the rest of the tournament.

KGA was the more dominating team in the second half and started to consistently play more attacking football and also had more shots on target. Goa Maroons had a few chances to increase the score line and their shots failed to trouble the substituted goalkeeper Blesson. #16 Bernardo of KGA drilled a ferocious strike towards goal but Carlos D’sa the keeper of Goa Maroons made a great effort to push it out of the goal. A string of shots followed onto the goal but Carlos made a lot of good saves look easy. KGA tried their best from the corners and free kicks they received but accuracy was lacking which let them down in today’s match. They also managed to hit the crossbar which summed up their day.

Goa Maroons strong defending and great saves from their goalkeeper made sure the score line would stay 2-0 at the end of the match. The match was refereed by P.A tony, Joe, Tony and Arnaldo.

Next Week Semi Final Fixtures:
Goa Maroons Vs DHL 6:30am
Navelim Vs United Friends Club 8:00 am

Elvino on "Is Science alone responsible for technological achievement??"

Re: Is Science alone responsible for technological achievement??‏

To: A. Veronica Fernandes.

Saturday, October 23, 2010 8:22:29 AM

To: A. Veronica Fernandes,

Dear Veronica,
Congratulations to you for this one of your best articles. You have interestingly connected the Science to the Faith. Indeed Faith has worked so many wonders and miracles in the world that God made this world a wonderful place to live for his Creation. God not only created MAN but constantly maintained/serviced his needs and requirements including support in inventions and adventures. Just like God has commanded the serpent who tempted Adam to crawl through out its life, God have given command to MAN to slog through out the life and He will bless human where necessary and Joshua's war is the finest example we have that God is in fact maintaining His Created Human constantly as and when needed.

Esperanca is yet another recent miracle in Chile God has bestowed on us Human. We pray God may continue helping us more in this present world intolerable though.

Thank you and God help you with best of health to continue your good work for us all.

Kind regards with all the best.

Elvino Rodrigues.

GREATNESS OF INDIAN ATHLETES DURING CWG IN DELHI.

By Nisser Dias 21st Oct 2010

Indian athletes did us proud.
Now the government should provide for them.

At the recent concluded Common Wealth Games in Delhi, Indian athletes in various disciplines brought laurels to the country by winning almost 100 medals. This count of medal is the highest ever in India and by this huge achievement, the young athletes of this country has sent a message to the government that they too can compete with the world’s best and bring back the honours for their motherland.

As recently as maybe two years back we were thrilled that Abhinav Bindra won the first ever gold medal for the country during the last Olympics. This tally was further raised by Sushil. But at the CWG 2010 games at New Delhi, new talents emerged taking every one by surprise. Everyone was expecting the same athletes to win their gold and a few other medal. But the countrymen were stunned by the performance of athletes in various other disciplines that our country stood tall in the second place of the gold medal tally. My hats off to the athletes, their parents and the coaches who put in hard work over the years to make the world and more importantly our own government to realize that there is no dearth of sporting talent in India.

It is high time that the Union government and the state governments appreciate the efforts of the athletes and become conscious of the need to allocate much required funds for various sports, infrastructure and other needs of the athletes. The government should also specify the heads under which the funds can be utilized simply because our politicians have the tendencies to utilize major chunk of allocation of funds for building infrastructure because this is where either the minister or the sports director or someone down the line get their commission and what is left for the athletes is just pittance.

The fallout of such a policy is that parents and family members of the athletes have to slog it out to provide for the children to bring out the best in them. This mindset of the government has to change and instead organize coaching camps to tap the talent. And once a athletes is noticed or rather identified, the government should go all out and provide the facilities to bring out the best in the child without burdening the parents because when an athletes shines at the international sporting event it is pride not only for the parents but even bigger pride for the state and the country.

The need of the hour is to ensure the current medal winners do not feel slighted after the games are over and that they will be remembered only at the time of next national or international sporting events. The government should ensure that their future is secure, that when the athletes surpass the age of competition that they will either be employed as a government servant or the government will facilitate, subsidize or finance them if the athletes want to set up their own academies in the field of their discipline. This is besides other incentives in cash and properties that the national or state governments doles out to the athletes on their return home. This will send a clear message to grooming athletes that the governments be it national or state has a policy in place to ensure their well being and that they will not be left in the lurch or left to fend for themselves.

This is the biggest fear of athletes that the government does not appreciate their efforts nor cares for them. And this has a ring of truth to it because Indian ace sprinter gold medalists Pillavullakand Thekkeparambil Usha better known as P T Usha was not even invited for the opening ceremony of the recently concluded Common Wealth Games.

But Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and Congress party president Mrs. Sonia Gandhi extended their courtesy to the medal winning athletes and personally met and acknowledged their contribution to sports in the country. But it should not just remain at this, much more needs to be done to boost the morale of sportsmen and women in this country. They should be honoured publicly. On the eve of Common Wealth Games national news channel CNN-IBN honoured forgotten sports heroes of the country and they had similar thing to express, wherein they said that they do not require money from the governments but require recognizance of their achievement, which the governments failed to but were accomplished by CNN-IBN

To start with Indian athletes should have access to all the world class facilities made available at the Common Wealth Games. Sports Federations and Associations should be invited to organize national level meets, tournaments, events, matches etc at these facilities throughout the year. Sports infrastructure and facilities in states should be revamped. Good coaches should be employed by the government to coach, train and instruct athletes on the finer nuances of the sport, check on their fitness levels. Such measures will go a long way in building our athletes for future.

As of now sports in India seems to be in a disarray with our youth taking interest in sports only at the school or college level and then giving up and the reason being no future prospects are underlined by the government. Those few parents who encourage their children have to dig deeper into their pockets to sustain the needs of their child or children, as the government’s dictum is -- you first get the medals for the country only then it will recognize your talent and maybe then think of contributing to the expenses incurred. This scenario has to stop immediately and instead, national as well as state governments should spend money on identifying talent in sports and training them.

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