Kolkata, Jan 10 Komron Tursunov made history by scoring the fastest goal ever of the I-League as TRAU FC drew 1-1 with Real Kashmir at the Mohun Bagan ground on Sunday. Tursunov scored in the ninth second of the match, beating Katsumi Yusa's 13th second goal against Churchill Brothers in the 2018/19 season.
The Tajik international's strike, however, was cancelled out by Mason Robertson's 70th-minute header that helped Real Kashmir take a point from the match.
Tursunov left Real Kashmir stunned with a venomous curling effort from outside of the box that found the back of the net. TRAU then dominated the first 20 minutes before Real Kashmir finally found their feet and started fighting back. Robertson's free kick in the 22nd minute was the first big chance that the Srinagar-based team had of equalising.
TRAU were still dominating possession but the Snow Leopards had more chances due to their counter-attacks. Perhaps the best opportunity for the Snow Leopards to equalise the match fell to Lukman Adefemi in the 37th minute when he missed a free-header inside the box with only the opposition goalkeeper to beat.
Real Kashmir then nearly found the back of the net in the 41st minute when the ball was sent wide of goal after a cross from the left flank.
TRAU were handed a golden opportunity to double their lead in the 58th minute when Komron was put onto goal by a swift counter-attack. After turning his marking man inside out, Komron could only test the keeper into making an easy save, as the Snow Leopards survived.
Sitting deep and hitting on the counter-attack, letting their opponents enjoy possession and dictate the tempo of the match, TRAU committed bodies into defence in an attempt of holding on to their lead.
In the 70th minute, Robertson finally scored the equaliser for Real Kashmir after his thumping header off a freekick found the back of the net. The equalizer spurred the Snow Leopards as they searched to take the lead but to no avail.
Despite dominating the latter half of the match and even finding the equalizer, Real Kashmir ran out of steam searching for the decisive goal that would have given them the win. TRAU's defence held on for the remainder of the match as both teams shared the spoils of battle at full-time.
( With inputs from IANS )
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