Versatile midfielder Eric Brown of Liberia, produced a standout performance to inspire a 10-man strong Mumbai FC to snatch an honourable 2-2 draw with Sporting Clube de Goa in a round 10 I-League 2015-16 match, at the Cooperage ground, on Saturday evening.
Mumbai FC’s inspirational midfielder Eric Brown of Liberia controls the ball in the 10th round I-League Football match
Eric Brown for his brilliant efforts was later declared ‘Man-of-the-match’ and received a cash award of Rs 10,000.
Mumbai FC captain N.P. Pradeep playing in the central defence position for the home side, picked up a second yellow card for a foul on Mohmoud Al Amna in the second minute of first additional time and was given the marching orders by referee Santosh Kumar Bhaskaran. Pradeep was earlier booked for a foul on Nigerian Odafa Okolie in the 22nd minute.
The visitors against the run of play grabbed the early initiative with their Syrian recruit Amna scoring from an Odafa assist in the 8th minute. But the Mumbai side replied back strongly and drew level when Ryuki Kozawa scored with a neat lob over Sporting goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya in the 19th minute.
Despite starting the second half with a man short, Mumbai FC created the better chances initially and in the eighth minute of the second half, managed to break down the Sporting defence to take the lead through substitute Jayesh Rane, who smartly slipped the ball between the legs of Bhattacharya to trigger celebrations among the Mumbai FC supporters.
Mumbai FC could not hold on to the advantage and once again Odafa created another chance by opening up the rival defence and found Seriton Fernandes in the clear on the right. Seriton quickly switched the ball across for substitute Victorino Fernandes, who from his first touch tapped into an open net in the 59th minute.
The home team were unlucky not to regain the lead two minutes later. First Jayesh Rane instead of taking a shot at goal gave a short square pass for Sushil Kumar whose attempt deflected off a rival defender and landed for Kozawa, whose try was saved on the line by Sporting defender Loveday Okechukwu on the line.
Later, the Mumbai goal survived a couple of close calls. In the 80th minute Victorino hastily fired wide across the goal from inside the penalty area and then Seriton failed to keep his shot on goal.
Earlier, Mumbai FC coach Khalid Jamil made five changes to the team, which lost the last game, an away fixture, 0-2 to Aizawl. New signing Sandip Nandy replaced Pawan Kumar in the goal, while Darren Caldeira, Rohit Mirza, N.P. Pradeep and Ashutosh Mehta started in place of Anwar Ali, Allan Dias, Asif Kottayil and Jayesh Rane, who came in the second half.
Mumbai FC coach Khalid Jamil was satisfied with the outcome. “It’s a good result for us. We have injuries to many key players, but the replacements did a fantastic job even after we were reduced to 10 players,” he said after the match.
The Mumbai team is unbeaten in five games on this ground, having drawn three and two wins against Salgaocar and Bengaluru FC.
There was no change in the standings as Mumbai FC stay in sixth position with 10 points from nine games, while Sporting Clube de Goa with 12 points also from nine games remain in fourth place.
In the next round Mumbai FC will host Aizawl FC at the Cooperage ground on Wednesday, March 2.
Result: Mumbai FC 2 (Ryuki Kozawa 19th, Jayesh Rane 53th) Sporting Clube de Goa 2 (Mahmoud Al Amna 8th, Victorino Fernandes 59th). Man of the match: Eric Brown (Mumbai FC).