Early Rahul Yadav brace helps RCF cruise past Kenkre FC

by Kaushal Shukla May 18, 2015

Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers (RCF) eased past Kenkre FC 2-0 in the Elite Division of the Mumbai District Football Association (MDFA). The game was held at the Goan’s Sports Association ground on Sunday, May 17th 2015.

Kenkre FC returned to Elite Division action after being away from the competition for more than a month thanks to their involvement in the 2nd Division League in the north-east.

Their return to local action had the worst possible start when RCF took the lead just six minutes from the start after the Kenkre players failed to pick Rahul Yadav’s late run into the box allowing him a tap in on goal.

Things got worse for Kenkre just two minutes later, when Rahul Yadav beat the offside trap to break into space behind the defence and cooly slot past the Kenkre goalkeeper whose indecision on whether to charge forward or stay back allowed Rahul Yadav the time to size his shot and giving RCF a 2-0 lead under ten minutes.

Kenkre FC were struggling to cope with RCF’s pressing leading to a lot of errors in possession. RCF capitalized on one such occasion in the 26th minute and almost made Kenkre FC pay again when Rahul Yadav hit a free header straight at the Kenkre custodian.

After failing to make any kind of impression in the first half, Assistant Coach Oscar Alva replaced Derrick Joseph with Yogesh Kadam in the 40th minute.

But it failed to spark any sort of a Kenkre comeback as RCF went into the interval with a two goal lead.

Kenkre started the second half on the front foot and very nearly got their reward in the 56th minute when Arvindraj Rajan latched on to a long ball but couldn’t keep his final effort on target. The RCF defender did well not to allow the marauding Kenkre forward any space.

At the other end RCF very nearly sneaked in again couple of minutes later but Kenkre managed to clear off the line and keep themselves in the game.

Kenkre made a double change post the hour mark when Shailesh Jadhav replaced Manash Sarkar and Arish Sutaria came on for Yash Mhatre as assistant coach Oscar Alva looked to add more bite upfront as his side aimed to chase down a two goal deficit.

But Kenkre appeared a tired outfit for the rest of the game and could hardly trouble the RCF goalkeeper. Kenkre’s Jao Kadussi Bernard did find himself in space in the RCF box in the 89th minute but he fired his shot just wide of the target.

The 2nd Division exploits seemed to have taken a toll on the Kenkre players as RCF strolled to a comfortable 2-0 win in their penultimate game