2014 Federation Cup: Substitute Baldeep Singh wins it for United SC against Pune FC

Kolkata-side United SC edged past Pune FC 1-0 in a Group A match of the 35th Federation Cup at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kochi on Friday afternoon. Substitute Baldeep Singh’s strike in the 71st minute sealed three important points for his side.

Eelco Schattorie made one change from the last game as he started with Rajinder Kumar for C.K. Vineeth while Pune FC coach Mike Snoei handed a start to Mumtaz Akhtar.

It wasn’t the best of starts for the two teams until before in the 10th minute, Arata Izumi released Anthony D’Souza who squared it for James Meyer to slot it home. However the Australian was too slow which allowed Dhanachandra Singh to get back and clear the ball. Midway into the first half, it was United SC who began to control the tempo of the game with Lalkamal Bhowmick and Souvik Chakraborty pulling the strings in midfield.

At the half hour mark, Lalkamal found Ranty Martins Soleye on the right and the Nigerians cross into the box was just about cleared by Anas Edathodika inside the box. Arata had a decent chance before the half-time whistle after Anthony cut in from the left and set it up for him, but the Japanese-born Indian’s attempt was off track.

After the hour mark, Riga found Arata inside the box but the latter squared it instead of taking a shot. Then in the 71st minute the deadlock was broken when Eric Brown‘s cross from the left saw Baldeep Singh’s left-footed attempt find the back of the net.

Thereafter Anthony did well on the right as his cross saw Riga’s first time shot being blocked by Deepak Mandal and off the rebound, Riga took a rather tame attempt which was effortlessly collected by the opposition goalkeeper Jayanta Pal. Substitute Thongkhosiem Haokip got into the act soon as his attempt from the right after being played in by Douhou saw Jayanta Pal drive it away for a corner.

The scoreline remained the same as Pune FC paid the price of not having converted the chances that came their way as United SC won by a goal.