BANGALORE, June 9: It was a victory earned by hard work and intuitive soccer sense of Joe Paul Ancheri. The star striker struck twice, the second one coming off a penalty, in Kerala's 2-0 win over the hosts Karnataka in the semi-finals of the National Games soccer tournament here today.The winners led 1-0 at interval in a match marred by crowd violence. In tomorrow's final at Kandeerava Stadium here, Kerala will take on Goa, who earlier humbled holders Bengal 4-2 in a high-scoring semi-final.

The Karnataka mid-field functioned in fits and starts with ineffective Soma Philips and Yoganathan occasionally darting forward for passes in the middle. Kerala's Jo Paul Ancheri sneaked down the left through the rival defence on a couple of occasions to combine with Vijayan and mount raids. But these efforts were not consistent enough to gain a clear advantage.The Karnataka left-wing back Sunil who charged ahead as Vijayan approached the penalty area in the 4th minute, was baffled by the striker's dummy to the right. The striker then ploughed to the left and shot straight at the goal. Fortunately for the hosts, the goalkeeper had positioned himself well for blocking that scorching shot.

Karnataka had to pay dearly for relaxing their vigil on an opportunistic Jo Paul as the stocky striker trapped the ball on his knees off a Edison flag kick in the 11th minute before lifting the ball straight into the roof. A delayed dive by Karnataka keeper Balaji was not enough to block the ball's path.

Karnataka's desperate efforts to draw level mounted pressure on the Kerala deep defence. But Kerala held out despite the rough tactics of their rivals. Karnataka's Soma Philips and the Kerala mid-fielder Anson were booked for off-the-ball offenses by the referee.

Jo Paul's penalty kick conversion which sparked off violence in the stands came in the dying minutes, after Vijayan was tripped by the rival defender Suresh inside the penalty area.

BENGAL UPSET: While Bengal were tentative in pressing forward, the young Goans decided to go all out with the medios surging into the spaces left empty by their Bengal counterparts on the flanks. Goa struck as early as in the 9th, when seasoned Bengal keeper Santi Majumdar failed to take full control of Sanaton Singh's volley from the left. Vishant Pednalkar cut in from the right to bemuse the keeper with his swift body action, and pushed the ball home. Adrian Dias added another 11 minutes later, stabbing home a Jules Dias cross.

Najimul Haque struck twice for Bengal in the 30th and 43th, the first one coming off a lunging header from inside the box. But, a rejuvenated Goa came down into attack with added verve after the interval to score two more goals. Alvito D'Cunha took the Goans ahead in the 75th, sending home a 20-yard rising shot. Alvito Pereira then sealed the issue with a last-minute strike off a similar attempt.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.