Sparta Boss, powered by a Sheldon Shepherd 16th minute second half strike were crowned the Mackeson ‘Keep Your Five Alive’ Champions as they edged West Front Road 1-0 at the finale played at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall tarmac, Homestretch Avenue on Saturday.
Shepherd upon receiving the ball from the right flank lashed home his powerful low effort to send the large partisan crowd into wild celebrations. For their efforts Sparta Boss received $300,000, the winner’s trophy and five futsal jerseys compliments of the United Center.
In a post match comment Shepherd stated:“We play good even though we were missing two of our players. We know we could have done it without them because we are Sparta.”
Losing Captain Hubert Pedro also shared his sentiments stating:“This tournament has to organize better without three teams reaching the final.”
On a night that was anything but smooth and in unfamiliar territory with three teams set to contest the final, a round robin group format was utilized to determine a winner. Each team was expected to play two games with each win being worth three points.
If an encounter was tied during the end of regulation time, they would be no extra time and penalty kicks would be employed to find a victor. At the end of the group round, the team with the most points would be crowned the champions.
However, if all three teams were tied on the same points, goal difference would be used to determine the tournament winner. In the first group encounter West Front Road defeated Festival City 3-2 on penalty kicks after regulation time found both teams scoreless.
Crowd favourites Sparta Boss went down to Festival City in the second group matchup by a 3-2 margin on penalty kicks as a winner could not be found during normal time with the scores locked a nil-all.
With the final group round fixture approaching, Sparta Boss needed a victory during regulation time to clinch the title whilst West Front Road required a win by any method. Sparta Boss was crowned champion’s following their one-nil victory as they were the only side that scored during regulation time giving them a goal difference of positive one.
Conceding the only goal during the group stages, West Front Road was relegated to the third position with a goal difference of negative one. With a goal difference of zero, Festival City was awarded the second place spot. They earned $150,000, a trophy and five futsal jerseys compliments of the United Center.
In the earlier exhibition games, West Ruimveldt defeated East Ruimveldt 3-2 on penalty kicks whilst Tiger Bay defeated Wolves of Sophia by a 2-0 score line.
