Friday, March 29, 2024

Sweet revenge

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KFC Pinelands Soccer Academy made Barbados Soccer Academy (BSA) pay the penalty for missing their penalties on their way to capturing the Barbados Football Association’s (BFA) Coca Cola Under-13 Youth Competition yesterday.
Playing at the Wildey AstroTurf, Pinelands came away with a hard fought 4-3 victory over their arch-rivals in a game that had to be decided by a penalty shoot-out after the score was locked 0-0 at the end of full and extra time.
In the end, Pinelands’ quartet of Ray Francis, Daviere Grimes, Justin Smith and Chad Mason  scored to lead their team to victory, while the BSA were made to rue misses from Sheiqkyn Germaine and Runaldo Bowen.
For Pinelands’ coach, Fernando “Burger” Best, the victory proved to be sweet revenge for an earlier loss to the BSA team in the final of the Barbados Cup.
“I feel real, real good. I can’t even describe it,” an elated Best told SUNSPORT.
“For the past three years, we have been in the Barbados Cup finals and it feels so great that we can avenge our loss to the BSA in those finals.
“I can see it within my players that they are very happy, because when they lost to the BSA earlier in the year, they were very disappointed and even I felt the pain.
“So now, it is for me to feel the joy and for the boys to enjoy the moment.”
Best said that even as the game headed into penalties, he felt confident his side would emerge victorious.
“I was always confident. I have the number one keeper from the primary school league in Jaden Blanche, so I knew he would have come big at some stage.”
As it turned out, Pinelands didn’t need Blanche to make a single save.
BSA’s Terry Rollock, Tao Best and Rickneco Marshall had scored their penalties to leave the score tied at 3-3, as anxious parents and spectators nervously patrolled the sidelines.
But with sudden-death looming, the dimunitive Germaine blasted his shot high over the crossbar.
Despite getting a hand to the ball, BSA’s keeper Dishan Howell was unable to keep out Mason’s spot kick, to give Pinelands a 4-3 lead.
Bowen needed to score to keep his team in the game, but his shot went well wide of the left post, sparking wild celebrations from Pinelands’ players and supporters.
Losing coach, Emmerson Haynes, said that having dominated the competition for the past five years, the boys were disappointed.
“We’ve been to every final since 2007, and we have only lost once and that was in 2008.
“So, it’s kind of a tradition and the boys aren’t happy to know that they are the first group to lose it since 2008. So, they are really, really disappointed.”
Haynes said, however, that although they had grown accustomed to winning, there were other objectives.
“At the end of the day, it isn’t so much about winning cups. We are really here to encourage them and prepare them as better footballers for overseas and that’s what we are working towards,” Haynes added.

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