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GFF, KS inaugural Futsal KO tournament (Round of 16)
Vengy go down in thriller to North East on penalty kicks
By Sean Devers
Kaieteur News – It was undoubtedly the match of tournament as Vengy lost 4-3 on penalty kicks to North East in an epic encounter which ended in a thrilling 5-5 score line at the end of Overtime in the final game on Thursday night.
Lennox Cort scores the first of two goals for North East against Vengy. (Sean Devers photo)
Played before a raucous crowd at the Cliff Anderson National Sports Hall, North East became the latest team to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Guyana Football Federation, Kashif and Shanghai inaugural Futsal KO tournament.
When an entertaining night of Football culminated just after 11:00PM, Berbice All Stars, Gold is Money and Sparta Bosses were all in winner’s row.
The feature match of the night saw a ding-dong battle with the Guyanese based Venezuelans Vengy looking the slightly better side.
Lindy Gardner opened the scoring to give North East a 1-nil lead when he beat the ‘green haired’ Gabriel Pena before the crafty Alberto Hernandez beat custodian Trevon Campo for the equaliser three minutes later and at half time the score was one all.
The second half was filled with aggressive, fast paced football and plenty of skill, especially from the Spanish lads.
-Lindy Garder scores from the Penalty spot for North East as he beat a sprawling Vengy’s Gabriel Pena. (Sean Devers photo)
With the intensity increasing by the minute and fans from both teams on their feet, talented Lennox Cort scored to wild celebrations from the North East supporters.
But two minutes later Jose Vazques drilled a shot past Campo and large section of Venezuelans in the good size crowd, were jumping and shouting in Spanish… and the score was 2 all.
-Alberto Hernandez scored a hat-trick for Vengy before Trevon Campo (in Goal) saved a penalty in the Penalty shootout. (Sean Devers Photo)
The flamboyant Hernandez made it 3-2 for Vengy but Cort scored again for North East and with three goals coming in three minutes, the excitement in the Sports Hall was reaching a crescendo with goals galore.
At the end of regulation time the two teams were tied neck and neck on 3 all.
In overtime, Hernandez scored the first goal and celebrated as if his team had won the world Cup and when Jhomnni Basabta, who showed off his dribbling skills and at times took too long to pass the ball, made it 5-3 and the Spanish fans must have been thinking of quarter-finals qualification.
But desperate times demanded desperate measures and North East were far from throwing in the ‘white flag’ and goals from Carl Tudor and Jamal Cozier levelled the scores 5-5 at end of overtime.
It had now come down to penalty kicks and it was North East who prevailed 4-3 after Pana was beaten on all four times. However, a Vengy shot rocketed into the upright before a brilliant save from Campo took North East into the Quarter-Finals.
In the opening game of the night Berbice all-stars defeated Melanie 4-3 as Denze Junor (in the first minute) and Phillip Williams (5th minute) beat Berbician Tierre Phillips, who took the MVP award in his team’s first game.
Dane Johnson and Tyrice Williams scored for Berbice in the first half which ended 2-2.
-Action in the opening game between Berbice All Stars and Melanie. (Sean Devers photo)
The crafty Williams scored twice in the second half to register his hat-trick and spearhead Berbice All Stars to victory. Clevon Barnwell scored the only second half goal for Melanie as Keeper Phillips was back to his ‘old self’ between the uprights.
Led by a brace from Andrew Murray and a goal from Trayon Bobb, Gold is Money, in their first game, showed that they are one of the favourites for the $1 million winners’ prize when they dominated Foot Steppers 3-1 after leading 2-0 at half time.
-The vocal crowd was on its feet in the final game. (Sean Devers photo)
Had it not been some wonderful work in goal by the Foot Steppers goalie, the score-line could have been easily 8-0.
In the other game, a star studded Sparta Boss destroyed California Square 5-1 with National player Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, Sheldon Shepherd, Jeremy Garrett, Nicholas McArthur and Stephen Alfred scoring a goal each as their team also staked a claim to taking the title. Antowne Vasconcellos netted the consolation goal for California Square.
As the satisfied fans left the ‘Sports Hall’ close to 11:30PM few of them would have harboured thoughts of not making it home by the mid-night curfew time.
The action continues tonight for a Christmas night battle from 7:00PM.
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