Football: Barclays League division one |11 June 2007

La Passe edge Dynamo

La Digue-based La Passe edged Northern Dynamo in a hard fought 3-1 victory at Stad Linite on Thursday afternoon in the second round of the Barclays league division one.
La Passe needed a good result as they prepare to meet Côte d’Or once again this time in the Intelvision fourth round clash next Tuesday.

The La Digue outfit went ahead in the 11th minute from captain Achille Henriette’s corner kick which Dynamo goalkeeper Jules Monnaie came out for but Malagasy Fagnorena Farampin clashed into him and he dropped the ball.  As the Dynamo players awaited for referee Elzea Michel to blow his whistle for a clear foul, he surprisingly allowed play to go on and Malagasy Valerie headed the loose ball into the net to make it 1-0 as the Dynamo camp protested to the official but to no avail.

To add insult to injury La Passe scored another controversial goal seven minutes later as Malagasy Jean De Dieu Tsimialona collected the ball when Dynamo pushed out and the Malagasy striker was miles offside. However, assistant referee James Emile did not raise his flag and Tsimialona rolled the ball to Fagnorena who was also clearly offside but again it was not signaled and he scored past goalkeeper Monnaie for a 2-0 lead, much to the disgust of Dynamo coach Cliff Nolin.

A minute later though Dynamo rode their luck as defender Ronny Hoareau elbowed Tsimialona in a tussle for the ball which referee Michel spotted but only awarded a yellow card.
La Passe continued to look for goals and in the 31st minute, Melvin Uranie made the most of a lucky bounce of the ball but his cross was poor to Fagnorena who would have scored as he was in the clear.

In the 36th minute, again the official was at the centre of controversy after La Passe captain Henriette robbed Elvis Julius of the ball to centre to Tsimialona in the penalty area but he was tackled by Hoareau from behind which looked to be a clear penalty but referee Michel turned a blind eye.

Dynamo, who struggled in this half, had a great chance to cut the deficit on the stroke of half-time as a rare mistake by Verna Rose let in Malagasy Asman Todisoa but he took too long to adjust his shot and defender Rose recovered to tackle him in the nick of time.

Dynamo brought on Steven Télémaque in the second half for Shane Elizabeth and suddenly their play improved.
In the 50th minute, Damien Tamboo sent a long throw-in into the La Passe penalty area and Todisoa weaved his way past two defenders but shot straight at goalkeeper Vincent Euphrasie with the goal at his mercy.

Three minutes later, Steven Télémaque burst through on the right to fire at goalkeeper Euphrasie who went down low to save the danger.
In the 55th minute, Dynamo continued to press forward and Todisoa’s sweetly struck volley was stopped at the second attempt by Euphrasie.
La Passe, who were under a lot of pressure, had a decent chance to stretch their lead in the 57th minute from Ramely Pascal’s well floated free-kick which was met by the unmarked Fagnorena but his glancing header flew inches wide.

Dynamo though were still the better side and in the 66th minute Steven Télémaque lofted a corner kick and Hoareau connected with a towering header but goalkeeper Euphrasie produced a brilliant flying save to deny him.

Three minutes later, Dynamo got their due reward as captain Evans Télémaque linked up with Marcus Maria whose teasing cross was headed home by Todisoa for a 1-2 score.
La Passe’s trouble were increased in the 79th minute when defender Jean-Paul Adela was booked for another badly timed tackle and it was his second yellow card so referee Michel dished out the red card.

Dynamo threw caution to the wind and in the 86th minute Basil Bertin miscued his header from another telling cross by Maria as La Passe hanged on and packed their defence in an exciting finale to this match.

However, La Passe scored a third goal in the third minute of injury time from Verna Rose’s long clearance which Tsimialona controlled to bore on goal as he tried to hold off the challenge of Ronny Marengo who was guilty of tugging his shirt. Referee Michel did not signal the infringement as Tsimialona just managed to thread a pass to captain Henriette who was inches offside but assistant referee Eldrick Adelaide did not flag. Henriette then raced through to flick the ball over goalkeeper Monnaie for a 3-1 win which sent them to the top of the league.
But Dynamo coach Cliff Nolin was very disappointed with the officials who gifted La Passe two goals.

“We were hard done by the officials with the first two goals and my players also played similar to our opponents as they were in a hurry. But we were more patient in the second period and we performed better,” coach Nolin told Sports Nation.

As for La Passe coach Bruno Saindini, he was just pleased with the result.
“It was important to win today in the first game of the second round and so we are pleased with the three points,” coach Saindini said.

R. J-L.