See Goa through my eyes: An evening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda for the ISL match where FC Goa beat Kerala Blasters

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

An evening at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda for the ISL match where FC Goa beat Kerala Blasters

FC GOA -FORÇA GOA

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Spectators in full energy at the Fatorda Stadium chanting Força Goa!!!

I watched last three matches of the local team FC GOA at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Fatorda.

This time around, could not get tickets for the match and at the same time, could not get a day off to go throughout the day I tried calling my friends who I knew were fans of the football in the hope of getting a pass or a ticket to see the match. At 5 p.m. I received a call 2 tickets were available. I called my colleague and geared myself to go, although we are held in the office beyond our closing time of 5.30, we left the office at the dot of 5.30. As usual the traffic was heavy being the closing office hours’ and added to that were bikes, cars, jeeps filled with supporters of FC Goa carrying flags and banners all along the NH-17 from Panjim to Margao.

As we neared Margao the traffic jam was increasing, all eager to reach for the Match. Between FC-Goa and FC Kerala Blasters was expected to be a thriller.
Zooming through the traffic jam we managed to reach Margao at 5.47 p.m. I tried calling my friend who had arranged the tickets, but all the telephone lines were jammed. It was frustrating getting through my friend, Just then a message popped in "Two Tickets kept at Vijay General Store gate no 5". After parking our bikes our hunt was for Vijay store, on learning that Vijay Store was just the other end of the stadium from where we were standing. Running through thousands of supporters was not easy, finally we got the tickets at 7.55 p.m. off we marched our way to the West Stand. As we entered the top floor it was a roaring welcome as the FC GOA supporters were chanting " Forca Goa" "Forca Goa". The stadium was jammed packed, having no seats available I tried to make myself comfortable on the steps in between the seats. Just them my friend who had accompanied managed to get two seats right in front and from there, we could get a good view of the game and soon we joined in the cheering and chanting of "Forca Goa" it was one big galore party.
Right from the start of the game Goa was attacking and Kerala on the defensive. In the 8th minute Tolgay Ozbey shot rebounded off the post. Though Goa had many attacks on the Kerala defence the first half ended goalless with FC Goa 0 - 0 Kerala Blasters.
Goa took the lead in the 63 minuts when Andre Santos took a free kick and the substitute Slepicka kicked it in past the flummoxed Kerala goalkeeper David James. In the 69 minute Santos scored the second for FC Goa. in the 79 minutes Slepicka made it 3-0 for FC Goa.
Full Time: FC Goa 3-0 Kerala Blasters!
Andre Santos was the Hero of the match. This win took goa to the 3rd Position in the ISL.
FC Goa coach Zico's mantra to move one step at a time has worked with the team, remaining unbeaten in the last six matches after inconsistent performance at the start.
After the match as we rode back home, it was such a wonderful sight to see with supporters displaying flags, chanting slogans all along the way.Forca Goa