It is with deep grief I got the sad news of the
unexpected death of an ace Goan ex footballer Domnic Soares from Saligao,
Bardez, Goa. A very humble man devoid of any pride and arrogance inspite of
being such a great man of soccer.
It was in mid sixties while I was schooling at
Arpora that I came in contact with this soccer wizard who with his left foot
would make the ball to do anything except talk. He first came into limelight during
the inter village soccer tournaments played at Saligao representing his village
team. People there were talking of Domick only and he was new in Goa coming
from Africa.
When our village team Candolim was playing against Saligao, I was given
a special task to stop him from scoring goals with his left foot. It was not an easy task to stop him because
he was very speedy left inner having excellent ball control and powerful
shooting power.
Playing at village level first his fame went
far and wide. Immediately Dr. Gustavo
Monteiro from Candolim and the then President of GFA approached him to play for
Academica which was coached by Pe. Chico Monteiro who was the brother of Dr.
Monteiro. From there within a short span of time he moved on to Vasco Sports
Club. During those days to play for
Vasco means now playing for Real Madrid.
That time Vasco, Sesa, Salgaocar and Shantilal were the top 4 teams in Goa at upper division. I was playing for Sesa and while playing for
Sesa I faced him innumerable times.
As a right defender playing for Sesa and he
playing for Vasco on the left flank we both encountered each other on the
playing field innumerable times and also clashing with each other. Many times our coach instructed me to mark
him very tightly to stop his mobility with the ball with ease. He was weak in the aerial duels which were my
forte and on his right leg he was not very strong but what he was missing his
left foot was covering up. He had power in his left leg and very good accuracy
too. While playing, his legs were playing less but his brain was playing more. I
never found any player in Goa and elsewhere in India as beautiful player as he
was.
He was very cool on the field, never losing his
temper, never ever I saw him arguing with the referees if proper decision was
not given by the referees. He was always a decent and clean player and never had
I seen referee giving him warning or reprimanding for foul play. Like Neville
D’Souza he was a terror in the penalty box drawing the defenders towards him
and suddenly feinting in the wrong direction and then releasing powerful left
footer.
He was not at ease with Bernard who many times was erratic in shooting
but with Andrew definitely yes, so too with Catao. Yet most of the goals
Bernard scored were from Domnick’s supply. Their quartet ABCD meaning Andrew, Bernard,
Catao and Domnick was a unique one and such a quartet I never saw earlier or
currently. They were moving up and down
like a well oiled machine and without uttering a word interchanging their
positions thereby puzzling the opponents' defense.
It was not only this quartet that was excellent
but as a matter of fact the whole team was a dream team. In their goal Arvinder
Sigh was like a rock stopping any shot from his opponents; in the defense they
had Himalayan boulders in George Ambrose and Styan and in the midfield they had
George Rosemond and genius Keshav who like a maestro orchestrating all their
moves. Till now Goa has not produced
another midfielder like Keshav.
Domnick was a specialist in taking penalty
kicks and never ever I saw him missing the penalty. Many of the goalkeepers
were afraid of his shots. Many players are nervous while taking the penalty
kicks but Domnick was never; on the contrary he was very happily and smilingly
used to take penalty shots.
It was not the Portuguese soldier Arantel while
playing for Vasco during Portuguese era that made Vasco a force to reckon with
but surely it was the late Domnick Soares who made Vasco the darling of Goan spectators.
Inspite of being such an excellent footballer
why he was not selected for Indian team is a big question mark.
In his untimely death Goa
lost a great footballer of whose type it is very difficult to come again
because such persons come to this world once in many years.
May his soul rest in peace and may God give
courage to his family to bear this colossal loss.
Kuwait.
