Sporting Clube de Goa's captain Dudu Omagbemi, ably supported by another Nigerian Edeh Chidi, led from the front to thrash Federation Cup and National Football League title winners Dempo Sports Club 3-0 to clinch the ONGC Super Cup at the Corporation stadium in Kerala on Saturday.
Dudu, who scored 21 goals in the just-concluded NFL to bag the 'Best player' and 'Best forward' awards, was in superb form as he struck in the 11th and 82nd minutes, while Chidi scored in the 24th minute to give a deserving win to Sporting, who had finished runner-up in the NFL.
Handicapped by the absence of their main striker, Ranty Martins and four other frontline players, Dempo, still hoping to complete a grand treble of national titles this year by winning this prestigious event, could not recover at any stage and had to suffer a severe onslaught from their rivals.
The Dudu-Chidi combine, which scored 29 of Sporting's 46 goals in the NFL, once again combined well to put their team in the driver's seat when Dudu, judging a smart header from Chidi came up with a clean flick off his left foot to seize the initiative.
Minutes later, it was Chidi's turn to collect a neat cross from Dudu and the former performed the last act to perfection, beating Dempo's custodian, Satish Kumar.
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Sporting increased the margin to 3-0 when Dudu came back to collect a long ranger near the goalmouth as Satish failed to control the ball inside the net.
The proceedings started under wet ground conditions and continuous drizzle. Sporting, desperately needing to lift the Cup to forget their defeat in the NFL, where they were leading the points table till the last round, went on the offensive right from the start to unsettle Dempo.
Bibiano, who played an impressive supporting role, made some good passes encouraging his strikers to time their shots.
After Dudu netted the opener, Dempo began building a strong defence to deny further scoring opportunities and also went on the attack to level the score.
However, Dempo's spirits were further dampened when Sporting soon scored the second goal and despite Raju Singh, Rebelo, Miranda and their captain Stanley Colaco trying hard, they could not break the rival defence.
A minute before the first half, Prakash almost scored for Dempo but the striker's powerful hit was neatly collected by Sporting custodian, Felix D'Souza.
Dudu and Chidi came with good attempts in the second half also, while Dempo missed one more scoring opportunity when Prakash misjudged a cross hit from Raju Singh in the 63rd minute.
Once Sporting scored their third goal, a tired-looking Dempo appeared to have given up hope.
It is the first time that a sum of Rs.10 lakh was offered as prize money for a one-off football match.
Kerala Governor, R L Bhatia, who was the chief guest, gave away the awards. AIFF President, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and ONGC Chairman, Subhir Raha were also present.
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