Emiliano Alfaro brace sinks FC Goa

Emiliano Alfaro scored a brace to set up a commanding 2-0 win for NorthEast United over FC Goa at the Indira Gandhi stadium in Guwahati on Tuesday.

The Uruguayan striker scored in the 20th and the 62nd minute as NorthEast secured their first ever win against Goa in the ISL. The win helped NEUFC go top of the league with six points and become only the third team after FC Goa and Atletico de Kolkata to win the opening two games of the season.

FC Goa struggled to hit the ground running against a well-organized NEUFC side. Subrata Paul made three fantastic saves, helping Nelo Vingada's team continue their unbeaten start to the ISL campaign.

Vingada made one change in the team that beat Kerala Blasters 1-0 in the opening game on Saturday as Wellington Priori replaced Nicolas Velez. Goa chose to play Rafael Coelho upfront and new boys Trindade Goncalves and Richarlyson together with Mandar Rao Dessai and Jofre Mateu in attack.

Goa sparked the game into life with chances early on. In the 2nd minute Lucio and Richarlyson combined to create a decent opening. In the 6th minute Goa had two successive corners which led to possibly their best chance of the first half. Trindade whipped a low corner from which full-back Raju Gaikwad headed in goalwards, but the attempt was cleared off the line by Reagan Singh.

It was the home team with the next big chance of the game 11 minutes into the half. Katsumi Yusa, the Japanese who scored the winning goal in their first win of the season, failed to give NorthEast the lead after finding himself in a great position. Romaric lobbed a pass into the box looking for Alfaro, but the ball was cleared and fell to Katsumi who tried to score instead of cutting it back to Alfaro, who was unmarked.

From then on NorthEast dictated the game at their own pace with possession and sensible distribution. Under Vingada, Northeast have been compact in the center and very well organized so far. Whenever Goa got the ball early on they were finding it difficult to dissect the well-organized home team.

The turning point of the game came in the 20th minute when Kattimani tried to play a suicidal pass with striker Alfaro putting pressure. Kattimani's intended pass hit Alfaro and the ball met the back of the net to give NorthEast the lead.

Goa ended the half on a high with Jofre and Trindade beginning to get move involved in attack. Toward the end of the half Mandar Rao Dessai produced a moment of inspiration dribbling past one and running through on the left flank to cut back to Jofre whose shot was well saved by Subrata Paul.

Goa started the second half with more intent, putting more players in the opposition half. In the 58th minute, NEUFC goalkeeper Subrata Paul pulled off two superb saves to deny Goa an equalizer. The first one was a low shot from Mandar, which Subrata saved, diving low to his right. Trindade unleashed a long-ranger on the rebound, which looked destined to meet the top corner, but Subrata again stopped it with a diving save.

NorthEast put the game to bed in the 62nd minute when Narzary produced an assist of high quality with a slight flick from the outside of his left foot which met an onrushing Alfaro, who slotted it in between the legs of Kattimani to double their lead.

Zico bought in top-scorer from last season Reinaldo in place of Richarlyson, who was poor, but the 2015 finalists never managed to come on top. Tactically Vingada clearly outwitted Zico with a well organised back four and a solid central midfield with Romario, Rowllin Borges and Wellington keeping Goa quiet throughout the game.

Six points and two clean sheets from their first two games could turn out to be crucial for NorthEast United, who now have three away games before coming back to Guwahati for their next home fixture.