BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – LAST night (June 11), RAMS Village Superstars FC brushed aside Coury Gatorade Conaree FC 3-2 at the Warner Park Stadium to become the first team to make it to the Finals of the Premier Division Final Four.
Badly needing a win, Conaree began pressing their opponents early in the game and saw a perfect scoring opportunity slipped away in the ninth minute.
Sensing Conaree’s intention, Village Superstars stepped up their game and Kayan Hendrickson tucked the ball into the back of the nets in the 13th minute.
Just five minutes after, a determined Conaree replied with Errol O’loughlin picking up a loose ball in the 18-yard box and firing it home.
Ten minutes before the first half ended, Village Superstars struck again; this time with a Travis Somersal’s strike after he showed amazing foot work and excellent ball control in the Conaree 18-yard box.
At the end of the first half, Digicel held yet another ‘Half Time Kick for Cash’. This promotion enabled patrons whose numbers were called two chances to kick the ball from the half line into the goal, which resulted in three patrons each winning a $200 cheque.
On resumption of the game, Village Superstars extended their lead with Steven Clarke brilliantly beating Conaree’s offside trap and going around the goalkeeper before guiding the ball home in the 53rd minute.
Conaree’s Irandy Byron got one back after firing a blistering shot from just outside the 18-yard box in the 60th minute.
As both teams shared almost equal possession of the ball, Conaree were given a number of chances to equalise and to even take the lead, but Village Superstars’ goalkeeper denied them by pulling off some superb saves to ensure his team goes through to the Finals.
Village Superstars also failed to make good of some golden opportunities.
On several occasions the Superstars went one-on-one with Conaree’s goalkeeper but failed to capitalise.
As the game ended, controversy struck as sportsmanship was pushed aside when a Conaree player, known as ‘Mudasuh’, verbally attacked a Village Superstars’ player known as ‘Finey’.
While some of Finey’s teammates intervened and were restraining him, a number of Conaree players, under the pretext of amending matters, went to shake his hand and sneakily punched him.
This ungentlemanly action infuriated Finey, but he controlled his anger, stepped away and shed some tears portraying himself as a more disciplined individual than his attackers.
Village Superstars now awaits to see who will join them in the finals in the match between SL Horsford St. Paul’s FC and Delphic Newtown United FC today (June 12) at the Warner Park Stadium.
