Football: Airtel Cup final-Anse Réunion clinch Airtel Cup on Jude Bibi’s goal |21 May 2007
The difference between the two teams on Saturday was Anse Réunion coach Vojo
Anse Réunion denied St Louis Suns the space they had enjoyed against St Michel in the 2-1 semifinal win and this really made them struggle in the first half.
La Digue-based Anse Réunion were quick off the blocks and almost took the lead in the opening minute as Congolese Dominique Kiyambu’s teasing cross was cleared in the nick of time by defender Jude Marie.
Five minutes later, Roderick Rose played a delightful cross-field pass to the impressive Andy Ernesta who fed Kiyambu but the latter fired in the side-netting.
St Louis Suns United just could not put a string of passes together as Anse Réunion quickly closed them down and this help to frustrate them.
In the 12th minute, Kenyan defender Zablon Amanaka played a superb ball into the path of Kiyambu who eluded St Louis Suns United’s Malagasy defender Ralida to send an inch-perfect cross to Yelvanny Rose who headed the ball over the bar with the goal at his mercy.
Sensing danger, St Louis Suns United went forward and came close to breaking the deadlock in the 27th minute when captain Denis Barbé linked up with Trevor Poiret who then fed Achille Henriette who, in turn, played a neat one-two with Alpha Baldé whose back-heel set the former in the clear but he shot in the side-netting.
Four minutes later, Henriette again burst into Anse Réunion’s penalty area to meet Jonathan Bibi’s through pass and it required a strong challenge by Anse Réunion’s goalie Ricky Rose to stop him.
St Louis Suns United coaching staff then paid a heavy prize for their insistence in pursuing with Jones Joubert who was clearly injured and had requested to be substituted.
Anse Réunion capitalised on St Louis Suns United’s weak left side as Andy Ernesta stole the ball from Joubert to race into the penalty area and his cut-back was rammed home by the bulky Jude Bibi to give his team a 1-0 lead in the 35th minute.
St Louis Suns United tried to raise the tempo in the second half as they gave Congolese Jonathan Mbanze his debut.
They huffed and puffed, but found it difficult to carve an opening in the well-marshalled Anse Réunion defence despite the loss of Kenyan Patrick early on through injury.
As St Louis Suns United pressed for an equaliser, they were lucky not to be punished in the 71st minute from a rare mistake by Jude Marie who miscued his clearance to the lurking Yelvanny Rose who shot narrowly wide.
A minute later, St Louis Suns United should have levelled matters as Baldé weaved his way to the bye-line to send in a cross which was blocked but Henriette picked up the loose ball to centre again. This time, Mbanze shot wide a decent chance.
In the 80th minute, Baldé controlled a long ball to release Henriette who was crowded by the Anse Réunion defence.
On the stroke of full-time, Andy Ernesta, who enjoyed a great match, bore forward to pull the ball back to substitute Pierluigi Nibourette who made a meal of a good opportunity.
In the end, Anse Réunion held on for a deserved victory which delighted coach Vojo.
“We deserved to win as we were tactically better prepared than our opponents. This is a good result for us,” Vojo told Sports Nation.
As for St Louis Suns United’s coach Marc Mathiot, he complained of his team’s poor showing in the first half.
“We had a poor first half as we found it difficult to cope with their tactics where they denied us space,” Mathiot said.
The cups and medals were presented to the players and officials by Messrs Rose, Vinod and Patel.
Reserved for first division teams only, the Airtel Cup was played in two groups of four and five teams each. Each of the four teams in pool B received R10,000, while each of the five teams in pool A got R12,000. The total amounted to half of the R200,000 sponsorship received from Airtel.
The top two teams in both pools qualified for the cross knockout semifinals.
R. J-L.