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The
Good Friday Annual Tournament
 The
Good Friday Annual Men Open Soccer Tournament held at the OSA
Soccer Complex on Martingrove Road was very competitive this
year. At the end of the day the teams with the most endurance
advance to the semi final. The format of this year’s tournament
was that of the World Cup with teams assumed the names of
various countries although the players of the teams were not of
the same ethnic background of the names of the teams. The teams
in this particular tournament are usually stacked with talented
players and organized and managed by the players themselves.
Their rationale must be to compensate managing the team by
recruiting the best players available with the guarantee of
winning the Cash Prize.
This year was
no different with USA and favorite India in the finals. India
defeated Ukraine 2-0 while USA won over Cuba by a close 1-0
decision. The finalist enjoyed 20 minutes of rest while watching
the Consolation game between Sweden and Togo. The Consolation
game was goalless but with 86 seconds left Sweden scored from a
rocket of a shot off a rebound 15 meters away to clinch the
prize.
The
tournament final was a lot more entertaining with USA creating
numerous scoring opportunities from counter attacks, exposing
the India offensive sharp shooters defensive skills. India was
also quicker to the ball and filled the open spaces beautifully.
The pressure finally paid off when they were rewarded with 8
minutes left when their striker utilized a one on one situation
and used his backing defender as a screen to lace a beauty of a
roofer past India goalkeeper Brian Bowes.
India was in
trouble because surprisingly after the goal USA was still having
the better of the run of play. However with just over a minute
left India striker Caswain Mason received a rebound off his
striker Gladstone “Scratchy” Richards and piped a bullet of a
shot from 8 yards out to send the game into sudden death pena1ty
kicks.
The teams
traded their first two penalties and on the third penalty USA
missed that give India the $4000 cash prize.
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