Mumbai FC held to goalless draw by Sporting Clube

Mumbai FC were unlucky to come out with just a solitary I-League point from their first home match against Sporting Clube de Goa at the refurbished Cooperage Football Stadium here Sunday evening.

Mumbai FC enjoyed domination throughout the match but were forced to share honours with the Goan club in a goalless draw.

Playing in front of 3,500 supporters, Mumbai FC took control from the opening whistle and created better chances. Strikers Josimar da Silva from Brazil and Mohammed Rafi received good support from the midfield, which certainly missed the services of captain Climax Lawrence. However, the hosts were let down by lack of finishing.

They put a lot of pressure on the Sporting Clube defence and had three clear attempts at the rival goal inside the first 20 minutes, but without much luck.

First in the eighth minute, left-half Kuttymani did well to cut in before tapping the ball into the path of Josimar. But the Brazilian was unable to direct his shot on target. Later Cletus Paul saw his well-executed free-kick saved by an alert Sporting Clube goalkeeper Ravi Kumar, who had quite a busy time under the bar.

After the change of ends, Mumbai FC continued to hold the upper hand. In the 53rd minute Mumbai FC's Japanese recruit Taisuke Matsugae combined with Rafi to break through only to fire straight into the hands Ravi. Seven minutes later Josimar charged towards the rival goal but he delayed in releasing the ball and the ball was foiled.

The Goans hardly troubled the Mumbai FC defence and could only manage a couple of raids. The Goan defence marshalled by stoppers Sandesh Jhingan and Miguel Garcia combined well to deny Mumbai FC from creating many chances.

Mumbai FC have now opened their account with one point from this draw in four games while the Goans have two from their second draw also from four matches.

"I am happy with the one point we got from this match and now we will go step-by-step from here. I missed Climax and the players were also under pressure because this was our first home match after five years. The experience of Climax would certainly have helped us to push for a win," Mumbai FC coach Khalid Jamil said.