MARGAO, February 10: The disappearance of the striking capabilities of Dempo Sports Club has become the main problem for their manager Custodio Almeida on the eve of their encounter with Churchill Brothers in the Philips National Football League match at the Nehru Stadium, Fatorda on Wednesday.Almeida's main worry though is the two-man strike force of Francis Silviera and Gautam Ghose who are not converting chances into goals. ``We do have aspirations of climbing the ladder on the points standings but then again it is the strikers who have to deliver,'' apprised Almeida. On a question as to whether they (Silviera and Ghosh) were banked upon too much by the team, Almeida snapped, ``They are being paid for playing. Our expectations are goals and not excuses.''
Churchill are no better in their defence without Nigerian Emeka Okeke. They looked totally out of proportion in the encounter against Air-India with Anit Ghosh and Sanny D'Costa failing to work to a rhythm.
``Emeka is back,'' informed ArmandoColaco, the team's technical director. ``We really missed him. He has the amazing capabilities to control the defence and lets hope we do not repeat the mistake committed in the worst ever encounter played so far.''
Dempo, on the other hand, are back to their full strength. Christopher Ihegborow and Lawrence Gonsalves, who missed the Salgaocar encounter, are back, leaving manager Almeida to choose from Salim Kwaja, who played quite well for his first outing of the NFL and Santano Colaco.
However, if there is a problem, it is in the intermediate line where Dempo will miss the service of livewire Rajesh Meetei and Marcelo Antonio who were injured during the Salgaocar match and failed to continue the game with over 25 minutes to go. Meetei, who twisted his ankle, will miss at least two games, while Brazilian Marcelo, who scored Dempo's goal against Churchill in the first leg, will miss the away match. Their places will be taken by Shanta Kumar and Mauricio Alphonso.
On the contrary, Churchill have quite aformidable trio in the mid-field with Tejinder Kumar, Bassim Yonan and Mario Soares. Again, a degree of doubt comes in with their forwards -- Chibuzor, Kasif Jamal and Zimbabwean Samul Harineki -- who missed chances galore against Air-India.
Both Colaco and Almeida voice the common message, which reads ``fighting to stay in the league'' as, if in case one does not get started now, relegation is for sure.
``The difference in terms of points in the lower five of the league is so narrow that a couple of bad games would mean curtains coming down,'' said both. Churchill, who occupy seventh position with 11 points from 10 games, are better off compared to Dempo (nine points, nine games), Indian Bank (seven points from nine) and Mahindras (five from 10).
Colaco considers Dempo hot, especially after their match against Salgaocar. ``The number of opportunities they made were innumerable. They, in fact, are the rejuvenated side.''
Going into Wednesday's match, the Goa League champions look favourites, becauseof the fact that Churchill beat Dempo twice earlier this season (2-1 in the first leg and 5-1 in the Goa League) while Dempo have just one win over the last year's second placed NFL team (scored in an exhibition tie before the Goa League commenced).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
