The Cougars Football Club and New Amsterdam United last Sunday made their way into the final of the Berbice Football Association (BFA) organized Guyana Beverage Inc. Fruta Skills Festival sponsored knockout tournament at the Rosignol Community Centre ground.
N/A United crushed Rosignol United 6 – 3 in the feature match of the double header, which saw Cougars pulling off a thrilling come from behind 4-3 victory against Barzilla in the curtain raiser.
In the skills portion of the tourney N/A slammed Rosignol 167 points to 109 points while Cougars outdid Barzilla 156 to 105.
Rosignol United were pushed on the back foot as early as the fifth minute, when NA’s Delroy Dean found the back of the net for his team, only to see Delroy Fraser break away from the defense and eased one past the NA’s custodian to level the scores.
Winding down to half time, Dean completed his double in the 37th minute, before Colin Bowry struck on the stroke of half time, setting the game at 3-1 in favour of N/A.
The final 45 minutes of play saw five goals being scored, with Rosignol accounting for two of them in two minutes. Clifford Campbell struck an 80th minute penalty whilst Shawn Brutus pierced the uprights one m,inute later.
Devon James (66th and 88th) and Leonardo Adams (85th) accounted for N/A’s other goals, which ensured they reached the final in convincing fashion.
In the curtain raiser, Cougars led from the third minute of play, compliments of a Shawn Sauers strike, but the match took a drastic turn as Barzilla were ahead 3 – 1, five minutes before the break.
Leslie Amsterdam (12th), Glyston Ghingoree (24th) and Cornel Taylor (32nd) contributed to Barzilla’s first half dominance.
When play resumed the more experienced Cougars team came out fighting and battled to the end to defeat the ever improving Barzilla team, thanks to the efforts of Lawal Ahmed who scored a double (52nd and 90th).
Barzilla will now face Rosignol United in the third place showdown before Cougars and NA contest the final next Sunday at the Rosignol Community ground from 1900hrs (7:00pm).
