Sparta Boss and Bent Street will contest the grand finale of the inaugural GT Beer Futsal Championship, defeating West Front Road-Gold is Money and Festival City respectively in semi-final affairs on Wednesday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
While the score line might not do justice to the actual competitiveness of the fixture, the East La Penitence outfit overcame West Front Road 5-1 in the feature contest while Bent Street crashed Festival City’s party by a 13-5 margin in the opening semi-final.
The two units will now lock horns at the same locale on Sunday, September 12th while the losers will face off in the traditional third place playoff.
It was a war of attrition in the feature as a near capacity crowd was treated to a closely fought matchup between Sparta Boss and West Front Road.
It would be the latter that would take the early lead in the fifth minute as Randolph Wagner scored, placing his effort into the lower left corner from the top of the box, after the opposing custodian spilt a sliding grab, thus allowing a left-sided pass to make its way to the wily forward.
However West Front Road’s lead lasted only a minute as Deon Alfred netted, slotting home into the net from the centre of the area, after collecting a right-sided pass from Eusi Phillips.
The East La Penitence unit was then denied the lead by the woodwork as Phillips rifled a powerful shot onto the right post from the centre of the field in the 12th minute.
Similarly in the 17th minute of the second stanza, West Front Road almost retook the advantage as a goal-bound Wagner right-sided shot, was tackled off the goal-line by Sheldon Shepherd.
Another glorious chance would go a-begging for West Front Road in the 19th minute as Wagner upon bearing down on goal after intercepting a loose pass within the centre of the field, fired his effort wide over the crossbar with only the keeper in his path.
On the other end, Shepherd was denied by custodian Devon Charles in the 20th minute as his right-sided attempt was deflected around the upright by the outstretched right hand of the latter.
West Front Road’s profligacy in front of goal eventually came back to haunt them as Travis Grant found the go-ahead goal for Sparta Boss in the 24th minute, slotting into the lower left corner after collecting a right-sided pass.
Wagner would then be given an opportunity from the penalty mark to level the score one minute later following a hand ball infringement within the box.
Stepping up to the mark, Wagner would see his right-footed effort denied by the outstretched hand of custodian Maurice Prince’s, much to the cheers of the viewership.
The resulting miss seemed to knock the wind out of the sails of West Front Road as Cleon Forrester made it 3-1 in the 26th minute, placing his effort into the lower left hand corner from the top of the penalty area.
With their confidence shattered and their lack of depth exposed at this level, West Front conceded their fourth goal in the 27th minute as Sheldon Shepherd lashed a right-sided strike into the lower left hand corner.
The score line was then sealed one minute onward as Eusi Phillips scored, lobbing his effort into an empty net from his own half after West Front Road decided to throw everyone forward in search of goals.
In the earlier semi-final affair, Bent Street took the early lead in the third minute as Stellon David rifled a powerful shot into the lower right hand corner from the left side of the field.
Bent Street’s lead then grew to 2-0 as David sealed his double one minute later, placing his effort down the centre of the goal after collecting a right-sided pass.
Stunned by their double concession, Festival City eventually got on the board in the fifth minute as Solomon Austin blasted a right-footed effort into the roof of the net from the top of the penalty box.
However that conversion only proved to be a brief respite as Okeene Fraser scored one minute later, compliments of a finish into the lower left corner from the top of the box.
Amos Ramsay then made it 4-1 in the eighth minute, bundling the ball over the goal line from within the area, after sliding to make contact with a pass from the left side of the field.
Festival City then pulled within one of the score as Daniel Favourite and Eon Alleyne scored in the ninth and 10th minutes respectively.
Nonetheless, that would be the closest they would get to the score line as Colin Nelson scored in the 11th minute, slotting home into the net after a loose ball fell into his path within the box unchallenged.
Bent Street then completed the rout in the second period, scoring eight goals to Festival City’s one conversion.
Daniel Wilson led the carnage with a hat-trick in the 17th, 21st and 27th minutes while David, Nelson, Fraser, Sheldon Profit and Jermain Scott scored in the 23rd, 24th, 26th, 28th and 30th minutes respectively.
The winner of the event will collect $500,000 and a trophy while the second, third and fourth-place finishers will collect $250,000, $125,000 and $75,000 and the corresponding accolade. The other sponsor of the event is the National Milling Company (NAMILCO) of Guyana.
