The 2014 Season was FC Goa's first season in existence. The club competed in the inaugural edition of the Indian Super League finishing the regular season in second place and reaching the semi-finals of the play-offs.
Background In early 2014, it was announced that the All India Football Federation, the national federation for football in India, and IMG-Reliance would be accepting bids for ownership of eight of nine selected cities for the upcoming Indian Super League, an eight-team franchise league modeled along the lines of the Indian Premier League and Major League Soccer in the United States. On 13 April 2014, it was announced that Venugopal Dhoot had won the bidding for the Goa franchise along with Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo. On 23 September 2014 Virat Kohli Indian Cricketer was unveiled as one of the co-owners. The brand ambassador of the club is Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan. FC Goa is the first Indian sports club to launch a satellite TV Channel – FC Goa TV on Videocon D2H. On 20 September 2014 FC Goa officially confirmed Arsenal legend Robert Pires as their marquee player.
Season summary FC Goa lost four out of their first six matches but came back strongly in the second half of the tournament with five victories from their last eight encounters keeping five clean sheets in their 14 matches. Overall, Zico has done a remarkable job with six wins, four defeats and three draws, which took them to the second spot of the standings with 22 points.
Match 1 lost to Chennayin FC 2–1 at home Balwant Singh (32') and Elano Blumer (42') gave the southerners a two-goal cushion in the first half, while Gregory Arnolin (65') managed to pull one back for the Goan franchise.
Match 2 drew to NorthEast United FC away Gregory Arnolin scored his second goal in as many matches to put FC Goa in an advantageous position only for the referee to award a controversial penalty which saw Koke convert from the spot to equalize in the first half for NorthEast United.
Match 3 lost to A de Kolkata 2–1 at home Andre Santos had put FC Goa ahead in the first half before Cavin Lobo struck twice in the second session for the Kolkata outfit.
Match 4 lost to Pune City FC 2–0 away A goal each from Kostas Katsouranis and David Trezeguet aided FC Pune City in their 2–0 victory over FC Goa.
Match 5 defeated Delhi Dynamos 2–1 away Tolgay Ozbey and Jewel Raja came to FC Goa’s rescue as they scored twice in the second half to help their side down Delhi Dynamos 2–1 after trailing by a Mads Junker goal for most of the game.
Match 6 lost to Kerala Blasters 1–0 away Milagres Gonsalves and Andrew Barisic combined brilliantly to give Kerala a win in their maiden home game with the former scoring the all-important goal in the 63rd minute.
Match 7 drew goalless to Mumbai at home Both sides created chances but failed to get off the mark as Mumbai moved up the table to fourth with the point.
Match 8 defeated Delhi Dynamos 4–1 away A brace by Youness Bengelloun, a Robert Pires spot-kick and a top strike by Tolgay Ozbey were enough to seal their first three points on the road. Gustavo Marmentini did pull one back for the home side after a penalty was awarded in the 73rd minute.
Match 9 was a 0-0 draw to Mumbai away.
Match 10 defeated Pune City FC 2–0 home. FC Goa took the lead early in the fifth minute through Romeo Fernandes and sealed the victory in injury time courtesy substitute Miroslav Slepicka.
Match 11 beat Kerala Blasters 3–0 at home Zico’s side avenged their away defeat as they trounced their opponents with a brace by Miroslav Slepicka while Andre Santos added the icing on the cake. All goals came in the second period.
Match 12 beat NorthEast United 3–0 at home Romeo Fernandes and Miroslav Slepicka put ahead FC Goa ahead in the first half while Andre Santos sealed three points after change of ends.
Match 13 defeated Channaiyin FC 3–1 away The hosts were handed their first defeat of the campaign of home soil by in-form FC Goa who scored again through ‘The Three Musketeers’ Romeo Fernandes, Andre Santos and Miroslav Slepicka. Jean-Eudes Maurice did pull one back for Chennaiyin Fc in stoppage time.
Match 14 drew 1–1 to A de Kolkata away The Kolkata giants could have been knocked out of the tournament if Edgar Marcelino’s wonder strike in the 27th minute would have remained. But, Atletico de Kolkata relied on little help from match referee B Toledo as Fikru equalized through the controversial penalty at the cost of Bruno Pinheiro’s sending off.
Signings Foreign signings #Position:PlayerLast clubDateSource 7 MF Robert Pires Retirement 2 September 2014 18 DF Zohib Islam Amiri loan from Dempo 26 September 2014 25 FW Ranti Martins loan from East Bengal 26 FW Tolgay Özbey loan from Dempo 26 September 2014 27 DF André Santos Flamengo 29 September 2014
Drafted domestic players
Round Position Player I-League club 1 GK Laxmikant Kattimani Dempo 2 DF Debabrata Roy Dempo 3 MF Gabriel Fernandes Dempo 4 MF Clifford Miranda Dempo 5 MF Jewel Raja Dempo 6 MF Alwyn George Dempo 7 DF Narayan Das Dempo 8 MF Mandar Rao Desai Dempo 9 MF Romeo Fernandes Dempo 10 MF Peter Carvalho Dempo 11 FW Holicharan Narzary Dempo 12 MF Pronay Halder Dempo 13 DF Prabir Das Dempo 14 DF Rowilson Rodrigues Dempo
Drafted foreign players
Round Position Player Last Club 1 FW Miroslav Slepička 1. FK Příbram 2 GK Jan Šeda Mladá Boleslav 3 DF Bruno Pinheiro Niki Volos 4 DF Youness Bengelloun Mulhouse 5 FW Miguel Herlein Vilaverdense 6 DF Grégory Arnolin Paços de Ferreira 7 MF Edgar Marcelino Al-Seeb
Players and staff Squad
Coaching staff
Position NameHead coach ZicoAssistant coach Arthur PapasConditioning coach Hussein SkenderovicHead of Youth Development Mariano Dias Physiotherapist R VenkateshAssistant Physiotherapist Russell PintoKit Manager Rajesh Malgi
Indian Super League Regular season League table
Results summary
Results by round
Matches
Indian Super League finals
Squad statistics
Appearances and goals
Goal scorers PlacePositionNationNumberNameIndian Super LeagueIndian Super League finalsTotal1 FW20Miroslav Slepička5052 DF27André Santos4043 MF19Romeo Fernandes3034 DF15Grégory Arnolin202FW26Tolgay Özbey202DF5 Youness Bengelloun2027 MF23Jewel Raja101MF7 Robert Pires101MF10Edgar Marcelino101TOTALS21021
Disciplinary record NumberNationPositionNameIndian Super LeagueIndian Super League finalsTotal2 DFDebabrata Roy2000203 DFNarayan Das3000305 DFYouness Bengelloun10001012MFBikramjit Singh40004014MFGabriel Fernandes10001015DFGrégory Arnolin20002016DFBruno Pinheiro01000117MFMandar Rao Desai20103018DFZohib Islam Amiri30003020FWMiroslav Slepička10102024MFClifford Miranda20002025FWRanti Martins10001027DFAndré Santos300030TOTALS25120271
See also FC Goa 2014 Indian Super League
References