Vasco: Indian Arrows and last minute goals seems to have become a nemesis, every opposition team will hate, but not the young boys, who eked out one more draw with a 89th minute equaliser that had coach Luis Norton de Matos saying, “One point against the champions is not bad.”
Defending champions Aizawl FC was leading 2-1 for the majority part of the game, but Arrows never gave up their persistence which ultimately bore fruits when Amarjit Singh Kiyam scored from the spot to earn his side a point.
Until the last match, never had Arrows come back to win a match from being a goal behind. While they have held the likes of Mohun Bagan to draws despite falling behind, their performance against Churchill Brothers was astonishing. It was a magical three minutes of extra-time that saw Abhijit Sarkar score twice to fetch a victory.
That seems to have installed a new confidence in the AIFF developmental team something that Matos termed as “we are not afraid.”
While a win would have taken Arrows to seventh, Matos was content with the draw that kept them at eight now standing on 15 points from 16 matches.
Aizawl meanwhile remained sixth with 18 points after 14 matches. The champions have now gone seven matches without winning, five of which have ended in draws.
New coach Santosh Kashyap was frustrated with the result, despite this being his debut match. He blasted C. Lalrosanga for an unnecessary tackle that gave away the decisive penalty to Arrows.
“I told him to take time but he made a silly tackle which cost us the victory. We have given away the game due to that kind of tackling,” said the former Mumbai FC coach.
The defending champions looked desperate for a win everytime they loomed forward and eventually scored in the 40th minute when defender Masih Saighani headed then ahead after Andrei Ionescu found him with a cross.
Arrows went into the break trailing by a goal, but bounced back within three minutes after play had resumed. Edmund Lalrindika scored his maiden goal combining well with right-back Asish Rai. The forward waved past the opposition defenders before curling one into the bottom-left corner.
But Aizawl hit back in the 54th minute, this time Dodoz finding the net.
Things looked to go downhill for the home side from there but Lalrosanga’s clumsy tackle to bring down Rahul KP in the box brought Aizawl’s own doom as Kiyam scored from the spot, to extend their unbeaten streak to two matches.