Sporting Clube, Viva draw goalless

Lowly-placed Sporting Clube de Goa held Viva Kerala to a disappointing goalless draw to snatch a point from the sixth round match in the ONGC I-League at the Corporation stadium in Kozhikode on Wednesday.

Handicapped by the absence of their main striker Wisdom Abbey from Ghana, Viva looked a fragile lot right from the start and never threatened to break the strong rival defence.

To their credit, Sporting, in search of a win, played better soccer but could not translate their effort into goal in either half.

The golden chance of the match came for the visitors in the 16th minute when Bisheshwer Singh, Elijah Obagbemiro and Capta in Mohammed Gafari together swooped on the ball near the post with Viva's 'keeper M V Nelson moving out dangerously.

Sporting have to blame themselves for not converting that chance.

Ten minutes later, Awadu, coming in place of the injured Abbey, fed the ball to Nigerian Baba Tunde but the latter's powerful left cross hit was saved by a flying Baretto Luis.

After a barren first half, both the teams played cautiously, making short passes and waiting for each other to commit a mistake. Viva were quite unlucky when Awadhu's shot (76th minute), off a free-kick, banged crashed into the right post.

Despite bringing in substitutes at regular intervals, Viva could not succeed in finding the all-important goal as the Sporting defence kept them on tenterhooks till the final whistle.

Viva continue to remain in fourth place with nine points behind current leaders Dempo (14), JCT (12) and Churchill Brothers (10), while Sporting have with three points.

Viva will play JCT in their next home match in Kozhikode on December 29.