Pele and Neal and Massy Caledonia AIA of Trinidad and Tobago secured identical 3-1 triumphs over Linden sides Amelia’s Ward and Milerock respectively in the semi-finals of the 22nd annual Kashif and Shanghai tournament at the Providence Stadium on Friday evening.
The result sets up a final between two of favourite teams in the competition.
In front of what was a poorly attended crowd in which the players, officials and media operatives outnumbered the spectators in the venue, both Pele and Caledonia AIA used their superior experience to overcome feisty opponents who have been playing commendable football throughout the tournament.
The opening game between saw goals from the potent strike duo of Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson and Devon Millington along with Devon Coldridge enabling the Gordon Braithwaite coached Pele outfit to a fairly comfortable victory.
With rain falling heavily before the commencement of play, making the place slippery, passing was likely to become difficult. But Pele made this problem obsolete with a brilliant team goal in just the second minute of play. Travis “Zorro” Grant coming forward from mid-field, made a sharp “one-two” pass with Millington. On receiving back the pass Grant sliced a right footed flat short cross to Richardson in box, who simply eased his shot past the Amelia’s Ward goal-keeper.
This goal set up the trend of dominance for Pele in the first half and when Coldrige scored in the 29th minute to make it 2-0, this remained the scoreline until the interval.
At resumption Amelia’s Ward got a lifeline.
A corner kick was headed out by the Pele defence, but it was not cleared out fully and Travis Watterton slammed home a hard right-foot shot in the 55th minute.
That goal reinvigorated Amelia’s Ward for a period as they began to show signs of assertiveness going forward for the first time in the game. Watterton almost made it 2-2, when on receiving a well placed free-kick in the 58th minute, he beat the Pele `keeper Sean Johnson comprehensively, but hit the top of the crossbar.
However Millington extended Pele’s lead in the 60th minute, when on receiving a shard right-wing cross in the box, he muscled his way around a few defenders to score from a tight angle to make it 3-1.
For the remaining 30 minutes, coach Braithwaite noticeably encouraged Pele to close up shop and be more defensive and preserve their lead until the full-time whistle.
Game two a saw an interesting encounter between the two time champions Milerock and Caledonia.
Milerock with the influx of guest players most notably Charles “Lilly” Pollard, had impressive wins over Seawall FC who disposed of five-time champions Bakewell Topp XX and Barbados side Caribbean United.
But sadly the game became a one-way show and the Caledonia dominated throughout the 90 minutes. They opened the scoring in the seventh minute when some poor Milerock defending after a corner kick, saw Kareem Graham (number 12) sending a sharp cross from the right-flank, for Walter Moore flying in to score his second consecutive goal of the competition.
Milerock’s only notable change of the half came in the 12th minute, when their `keeper Kevin Graham brilliantly saved a close range header from Randy Small. Other than that it was all Caledonia for the first half and after missing three excellent chances, with the last action of the opening period Trevin Ceasar (number 10), ran about 30 yards past about five Milerock defenders to score making it 2-0.
The pace of the game noticeably decreased during the initial 20 minutes of the second half, although Caledonia remained the side playing the more compact football.
They eventually were rewarded in 77th minute with their third goal, when Jamal Gay powered down the left-wing and slipped in a loss cross for Devon Jorsling to score.
In the final period of play Caledonia suffered a slight blimp having Abdallah Phillips sent of for a reckless tackle reducing them to 10-men, then a mad scramble in the box saw Milerock right-back Jermaine Granderson scoring in the 86th minute. Milerock pressed hard to try to find the two more goals, but Caledonia defended solidly with a man down to secure their place in the final.
