ON a night when there was no shortage of goals, Sparta Boss was on the delivering end as they stuck to their guns to be crowned winners of the second Annual Petra/GT Beer Futsal competition.
In a physical final at the National Gymnasium, the Sparta side ‘bossed’ their opponents Back Circle for a 4-2 win when the final whistle sounded in the wee hours of Sunday morning.
The game started at a fast pace as the Sparta side seemed to want to overwhelm their opponents from the word go with well put together passes and steady raids on goal; and it wasn’t long before a deflection off a Back Circle defender gave Sparta the opening goal.
Sparta used this as a springboard to continue their assault on the Back Circle side, with national forward Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson sticking home goal number two in front of a packed Gymnasium in the 22nd minute.
Jermaine Beckles would then put a flicker of hope in the hearts of the Back Circle fans just four minutes later after pulling off a ‘lambada’ and striking for goal, sending fans into wild Jubilation.
But Sparta were not going to let that go unanswered and three minutes later regained their two goal advantage through Solomon Austin in the 29th as the whistle sounded to end the half at 3-1
On the return from the half, Back Circle seemed to have a renewed vigor and pressed more into the Sparta half with several enterprising runs either fizzling out or skewing wide of the mark.
Beckles would come to their rescue again, clawing to get the Back Circle side level with another beautiful effort in the 34th as the fans were now on their feet, cheers of a comeback filling the Gymnasium.
Back Circle turned that goal into momentum for them as they began pressuring the Sparta side with more frequent shots but all it took is one run away ball and a precision one-two play to seal the deal for Sparta, Calvin Shepherd two minutes from time breaking the Back Circle hearts.
By this time, the writing was already on the wall and many began to leave the Gymnasium, with the final whistle only sounding to let lose the Sparta fans from the stands to celebrate with their team.
In the earlier third place game, a close game between Sophia and Bent Street saw the former winning 7-6 in a scoring frenzy.
Sparta carted off $400,000 and the championship trophy, while the runners-up Back Circle took $200,000, Sophia $100,000 and Bent Street $50,000.