Rodriguez saves Minerva blushes

Deepankar Sharda 
Tribune News Service
Panchkula, January 19 

A late goal by Jorge Caceido Rodriguez helped 10-men Minerva Punjab FC to pull off a 1-1 draw against visitors Gokulam Kerala FC at Tau Devi Lal Stadium here on Saturday. 

Gokulam enjoyed most of the possession and were first to score when striker Marcus Joseph sent the ball into the net with his left foot in the 84th minute. But a poor clearance by one of their defenders allowed Minerva drew level in the 95th minute. 

Minerva FC stayed put at the seventh place with 14 points from 13 matches, while the Kerala outfit improved their tally by a point and jumped to the ninth spot. 

Earlier, Minerva head coach Paul Munster stood by his promise and fielded only three foreign players. 

Locals Arashpreet Singh, who plays as a right-winger, and midfielder Saurav Rautella along with 18-year-old Kouame Konan Zacharie made their debut for the hosts.  

The newly-appointed technical director to Gokulam FC, Gift Raikhan, brought in Deepak Kumar, Imran Khan, Wungngayam Muirang and Charles Teiko Folley.

The match started off on a dull note as both teams were facing difficultly in maintaining the possession. Minerva’s experiment to promote stopper back Lancine Toure as striker did not work and when debutant Zacharie was shown the red card for making a strong contact with Gokulam’s goalie Arnab Das things looked to fall apart for the hosts. 

Minerva FC was clearly playing under pressure but Gokulam players failed to take the advantage. They did launch some good attacks, but failed to score. 

Just before the half-time, Gokulam’s Joseph got a good touch on Imran Khan’s cross but the attempt was collected safely by Minerva custodian Arshdeep Singh. 

After a barren first half, both teams tried hard to score but the situation remained unchanged until Gokulam managed to pull off a goal in the 84th minute through  Joseph. 

Gokulam seemed well on course of a victory before Rodriguez headed the ball past Arnab Das in the last minute of the match to earn a 1-1 draw for Minerva.