NLCL chairman ‘disappointed’ by Sunday smackdown

DAVID SCARLETT

CHAIRMAN of the Next Level Consulting Limited (NLCL) Under-19 Community Cup, Brian Jordan, has expressed his dissatisfaction towards last Sunday’s semi-final brawl between Cox Football Academy and Cantaro United FC at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.

At the one-hour mark in the fixture, the game was plagued by an ill-disciplined smackdown as players from both teams got involved in physical attacks against each other. The scuffle ignited when Cox FA’s Tereek Abraham kicked out at Cantaro defender, Jahdell Alexander, after losing a 1-v-1 race for the ball in the Cantaro penalty area.

Alexander retaliated and players from both sides joined the fray, which resulted in chaos. Substitutes, coaches, competition officials and spectators stormed the field to diffuse the heated fracas.

When the melee was dissolved, Abraham, Gesiah Bishop, Yohan Romano (Cox FA); Jamal Williams and Jaydon Charles (Cantaro United) were sent off for violent conduct by referee Ashton Benjamin.

Jordan later released a statement regarding the incident. He wrote, “The NLCL U19 Community Cup has a tagline which is ‘Saving Our Youth Through Football’. Our organising committee takes that mission very seriously…”

He continued, “We understand that many of our footballers come from at-risk communities, and from broken homes and families. Some even attend the same schools we see on the television newscasts with many of these unfortunate fights. Coming out of the covid19 pandemic, many psychologists and psychiatrists have stated the two years of isolation and curfews would result in lost socialisation skills, and greater need for conflict resolution skills training.

“Even though we understand the passion (for the game) and that rash decisions are often made in the ‘heat of the moment’, this type of behaviour cannot be tolerated, and will not be tolerated by the organising committee. Luckily, no one was seriously hurt.”

Jordan noted, “Moving forward, we will work with the TTFA, as we have in the past, to ensure all parties involved in breaching our football codes shall be given the appropriate sanction. We will also work with the police and security companies to ensure tighter measures and controls are put in place for our Championship game.”

He added, “There is no perfect person, young or old. We all make mistakes and we hope, as disappointed as we are now, that all young people involved in the fracas will be forgiven in time, and eventually be allowed to return to play this sport we all love.”

As far as the match was concerned, Cox Football Academy defeated Cantaro 3-1. Tyrique Ramjit was the first on the scoresheet for Cox FA when he directed a left-sided cross past Cantaro goalkeeper, Stephon Langaigne, and into the back of the net in the 15th minute. Ramjit netted another via a header in the 46th minute to extend the Cox FA’s lead to 2-0.

After the 60th minute melee, Cantaro United halved their deficit in the 75th minute courtesy a tap-in from their captain, Nathaniel Perouse. He almost got his team back on level terms eight minutes later, but his cross-turned-shot struck the post and was cleared to safety by the Cox FA defence.

Cox FA restored their two-goal lead in the 89th minute when Keeghan Simmons broke free of the Cantaro defence to clinically blast his shot in off the underside of the crossbar. Cantaro had a lifeline via a penalty kick two minutes later as Perouse was hacked down by Cox FA goalkeeper, Kenzel Adams. But Adams made up for his error by saving the resulting kick taken by Perouse.

The final whistle was blown shortly after as Cox FA secured their place in Monday’s trophy fixture.

In the first semi-final, Soccer Made Simple booked their ticket to the final with a resounding 4-1 win against Tobago’s Eagles FC.

Terron Miller opened the scoring for ‘SMS’ in the 19th minute with a well-placed header past Eagles goalkeeper, Tyrese Carrington. Eight minutes later, Miller doubled his tally, tapping the ball home from ten yards out from a low cross from the left flank. The flamboyant striker was then booked for his excessive celebration as he removed his shirt to let the rest of the league know that he became the top scorer.

Jaheim Patrick made it 3-0 to ‘SMS’ in the 39th minute before Miller completed his hat-trick from a smart long punt from his goalkeeper, smashing it into the bottom right corner in the 43rd minute.

Eagles pulled one back through Andre Davis in the 66th minute, but the Scarborough-based team could not fight back to get a result as Soccer Made Simple sailed on towards the championship game.

The tournament will be concluded at the Ato Boldon Stadium this Monday with the third playoff between Eagles FC and Cantaro United at 2 pm, and the final contested by Soccer Made Simple and Cox Football Academy at 4 pm. Both games will be broadcast live on Wired868’s YouTube channel.