THE devastating Bent Street and undefeated Sparta Boss teams will thrash it out in the final of the Petra Organisation/GT Beer Futsal tournament, for top honours, following their commanding and exciting victories in the semi-finals on Wednesday at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH).Bent Street destroyed Festival City 13-5 to end their winning streak at four matches in the first semi-final then Sparta Boss strolled to an impressive 5-1 win over West Front Road’s ‘Gold is Money’ in the other encounter.
This Saturday, the tournament wraps up at the same venue with the third place playoff between West Front Road and Festival City, prior to the grand finale where the victors will walk home with the top prize of $500 000.
When things kicked off in Wednesday’s semi-finals, Bent Street went ahead early with Stellon David drawing first blood with a powerful shot into the lower right corner. David doubled his team’s lead with a good finish that baffled the goalkeeper.
Festival City pulled one back in the fifth minute compliments of Solomon Austin who steamed his shot into the roof of the net from just on top of the penalty area.
Okeene Fraser scored one minute later to make it a two-possession game once again then Amos Ramsay joined the party in the eighth minute to make it 4-1.
Festival City later pulled within one of the score as Daniel Favourite and Eon Alleyne scored in the ninth and 10th minute, respectively. Colin Nelson countered for Bent Street as the half ended 5-3.
After that, Festival City had no chance of progressing to the final as the opposition produced eight goals to Festival City’s two.
Daniel Wilson led the carnage with a hat-trick in the 17th, 21st and 27th minute while David, Nelson, Fraser, Sheldon Profit and Jermain Scott scored in the 23rd, 24th, 26th, 28th and 30th minutes, respectively.
Austin and Alleyne scored once each in the second half but it was only enough to get Festival City a spot in the third place match.
In the other semi, Sparta and West Front Road battled to a 1-1 first-half score, where both teams traded shot for shot but neither could have put a firm handle on the match.
Finally, Sparta were able to break the deadlock in the 24th minute when Travis Grant found the back of the net.
West Front Road had two opportunities to equalise but squandered their chances. Soon after, Cleon Forrester made it 3-1 in the 26th minute, placing his effort into the lower left-hand corner from the top of the penalty area.
With time running out, West Front Road’s aggression faded slowly and Sparta went in for the kill.
Sheldon Shepherd and Eusi Phillips scored in the 27th and 28th minutes to completely put the victory beyond doubt.
Apart from the half-of-a-million top prize the second-, third- and fourth-place finishers will collect $250 000, $125 000 and $75 000. The National Milling Company (NAMILCO) of Guyana is also onboard the Petra-organised event.