Four strikes, a red card and an own goal marked an eventful opening match of the 29th Federation Cup football as hosts JCT outclassed Vasco Sports Club 3-1 to advance to the quarter-finals in Ludhiana on Tuesday.
Goals for JCT came through Brazilians Eduardo da Escobar (5th minute), Marcos Pereira (45th) and an own goal from Robert Fernandes (75th) as the team from Punjab dominated proceedings at the Guru Nanak Stadium.
The sole success for Vasco came when Nigerian Mathew Odje found the net in the 68th minute.
The victory margin could have been bigger had JCT taken all their chances and Juze Siddhi in the Vasco goal not made some good saves.
In contrast, the JCT defence gave little joy to the rival forwards and goalkeeper Karanjit Singh had a largely uneventful late afternoon.
Vasco had to play out the final five minutes with only 10 men when Quetrio Pango was shown a second yellow card for kicking Baldeep Singh Sr. in the groin.
The only sore point was the sparse crowd in the stands, a stark contrast to the packed Ambedkar Stadium during the recent Nehru Cup.
The home team did not take long to find the net.
Vasco paid the price for committing a foul near their penalty area and Eduardo scored off the resultant free kick which went in off the left upright.
The Brazilian and national team stars Sunil Chhetri and Renedy Singh were giving all that Vasco could handle and the Goan defence survived further damage more by luck than design.
Chhetri came close in the 33rd minute when he got a pass from Eduardo and dribbled past two defenders before hitting the left post.
But Vasco's luck ran out just before half-time when Eduardo snaked past the defence and cut back the ball for Marcos who turned and shot home.
The Goan team showed more urgency in the second half but showed little prowess in the final third and they had to thank the JCT defence for their goal.
Joy Ferrao played a through ball to Odje who took advantage of the confusion between to defenders to find the target past an advancing Karanjit.
The goal could have been the lifeline for Vasco but they shot themselves in the foot very soon.
Eduardo played a clinical pass to Baljit Singh Sahni whose weak try from inside the box was fumbled by Siddhi.
With no attackers to worry about, it should have been an easy clearance for Robert Fernandes but his attempted shot hit fellow defender Kamal Thapa, standing beside him, on the arm to go in to complete the comedy of errors.
Vasco heads were clearly down at this turn of events and Julius' attempt at a fourth goal had to be tipped over by Siddhi.
But, JCT had done enough by then to seal a spot in the quarter-finals to be played on September 9.
JCT coach Sukhwinder Singh was largely satisfied by his team's performance.
"It is early in our season and we did not have much practice going into the game. We should improve as the tournament goes on," the former India coach said.
"We have lost two class players in Chidi Edeh and Adebayo Adewusi. Marcos is as good as Adebayo but Chidi is irreplaceable," Sukhwinder added.
