For two seasons of the Indian Super League (ISL), the legendary Zico has often been considered the greatest strategist of the league. Sure, he might not have won the title yet like Antonio Lopez Habas or Marco Materazzi, but he has been appreciated for making the best of his resources, and always having a backup plan when his initial strategy has been found wanting. The best example of that was in alternating between an attacking 3-5-2 and a more pragmatic 4-2-3-1, both dependent on which players were fit and available during the 2015 campaign in particular, one that ended with almost the perfect fairy-tale ending on the home turf of the Nehru Stadium in Margao. One thing Zico had never done before Tuesday night, though, was coming up against Nelo Vingada. NorthEast United had never beaten FC Goa, and in fact under Venezuelan coach Cesar Farias, they had led in both of their league games against Goa last year. The home leg was particularly disappointing in the outcome, because a 12th minute Francis Dadzie strike was cancelled out and overturned in the first half an hour itself, as Goa waltzed to a 3-1 win. Perhaps mindful of that, 63-year-old Vingada's first move came even before the teams lined up at the tunnel, fielding a holding midfielder in Brazilian Wellington Priori and sending the impressive Nicolas Velez onto the bench. Wellington essentially slotted in alongside Romaric and Rowllin Borges, with an implicit understanding between the three that any one of them would always be screening the back four to keep an extra insurance against Goa and their pacy wingers. Zico himself played a lone striker in Rafael Coelho and sought to beef up his midfield by playing Sanjay Balmuchu to cover his back four. The early exchanges were perhaps won by Goa, with much of the possession with the visitors, and also the only real forays into the opposition defensive third inside the first quarter of an hour. At this point, Zico realised he probably needed to bring NorthEast out a bit and decided to sit deep and give up possession in advanced positions. Vingada's NorthEast refused to take the bait. The midfield stood firm, and Katsumi Yusa, who had scored the first goal for the home side in the league opener on Saturday, kept himself free to hop across to wherever the ball was. It was hustling of a similar kind which led to the first goal in the 20th minute, as NorthEast striker Emiliano Alfaro just took a gamble to put pressure on Goa goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani as he sought to receive a back-pass from Lucio. Kattimani got the yips, and literally passed the ball onto Alfaro, whose touch took the ball into the net. The waiting game had paid off. Vingada 1. Zico nil. Soon after, the man they call 'Professor' had to change his centre-back combination as Mailson appeared to injure himself and had to be helped off the pitch. The marquee player Didier Zokora slotted in to the centre-back position, not a natural choice for him, but one he's not unfamiliar with. A little after the half-hour mark, right-back Reagan Singh overcommitted to one ball around the half-way line and that gave space for the nippy Mandar Rao Desai to work with, and he whipped a cross in that was met by Jofre, but the Spaniard's shot was blocked by Subrata Pal. Instructively, it was to be the last time that Reagan and his fellow wing-back Robin Gurung were seen to be in advanced positions -- at least without possession -- for the rest of the game. Goa kept coming at NorthEast, but Subrata was a steady influence in goal on Tuesday, much unlike the restless rookie he had come to resemble against Kerala. Subrata kept his composure even as Zico upped the ante in the second half, first bringing on Romeo Fernandes in place of Balmuchu at the change of ends. FC Goa were expecting to get more width of the pitch to play with, but that had been taken care off by the decision of Reagan and Robin to not move out of position as often as before. Katsumi continued to be industrious, as did Wellington and Romaric. It was Wellington who initiated the move that led to the second goal a little after the hour-mark, off what was essentially a counter-attack from when Subrata had been called upon to save two shots in quick succession from Mandar and Trindade Goncalves. Wellington's pass was flicked on by Holicharan Narzary, the youngster from Kokrajhar not too far from where the Indira Gandhi Stadium is located, and Alfaro showed exceptional awareness in outpacing Fulganco Cardozo before scoring past Kattimani. If there were any fears about a 2015-like meltdown building up among the NorthEast faithful -- most of them members of the 28,000-strong crowd on the night -- this assured them that the Vingada era promises a new start. Desperate for a riposte, Zico would soon play his last cards, bringing on both his Brazilian strikers Reinaldo and Julio Cesar. Vingada showed pluck in putting on Velez -- actually he had been planning to introduce the Argentine just before Alfaro scored his second -- but he did so at the expense of Romaric. It was almost his way of telling his team that they were not to back away even with the two-goal cushion. The match should have seen a bigger margin, and an Alfaro hat-trick, in the 80th minute but for a timely block by Goa defender Raju Gaikwad, but then Vingada delivered on another promise. The Portuguese coach, who assisted Carlos Queiroz when Portugal won two World Youth Championships in 1989 and 1991, has often spoken about correcting the current ISL stipulation of requiring a minimum of five Indian players on the pitch at all times. Vingada walked the talk on Tuesday by bringing on Seityasen Singh to replace the hero of the night Alfaro, and with his pace Seityasen continued to harry a tired Goa defence. When the final whistle came, it meant NorthEast United had finally beaten FC Goa and Zico in the ISL. To have done that with two clean sheets is all the more impressive, which takes them to the comfort of the top of the table. They will stay there for at least another 72 hours, before beginning an arduous three matches away from home against Mumbai City FC. But that can wait. For the moment, Vingada's NorthEast United become just the third team to win both their opening matches in an ISL season. And you know the best part? One of the other two are Zico's FC Goa.
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