Football: SeyPearl First Division league |30 August 2019

St Louis sweep aside Victoria City

2017 league champions St Louis had to come from behind to sweep aside 2018 second division league champions Victoria City 4-1 at Stad Linite in the opening match of the 2019-2020 SeyPearl first division league.

City shocked St Louis with only six minutes on the clock when defender Danny Madeleine was adjudged to have handled in the penalty area by assistant referee James Emile who flagged and referee Dario Landrie duly obliged as he pointed to the penalty spot.

City captain Leroy Chetty was assigned the spot kick and he made no mistake as he beat goalkeeper Gino Pleureuse for a1-0 lead.

St Louis though got their acts together as they enjoyed plenty of possession and in the 21st minute, Danny Madeleine released captain for the day Jude Nancy who floated the ball into the penalty area to the unmarked Elijah Tamboo whose glancing header sailed just wide.

Three minutes later, Malagasy Tahiry rifled a free kick at City goalkeeper Ritchie Dubel who just managed to tip the ball into corner as St Louis applied the pressure and from the resulting corner kick taken by Tahiry, the ball fell to Gerick Vidot whose shot came off the hand of Dareem Esparon which resulted in a penalty signaled by referee Landrie.

Karl Hall stepped up for the spot kick and he sent goalkeeper Dubel the wrong way to level matters at 1-1, a score which remained until half-time.

St Louis pinned City in their own half in the second half and in the 48th minute, they forced an error out of their defence allowing Tamboo to set up Tahiry but he curled his shot from inside the penalty area wide.

In the 50th minute, Tamboo thumped a free kick at goalkeeper Dubel who parried the ball but Tahiry could not force the loose ball over the line with his thigh as Dubel kept out the danger.

St Louis though took the lead in the 52nd minute as Hall linked up with their overlapping captain Nancy who exchanged passes with Tahiry in the penalty area and Nancy then intelligently back-heeled the ball to Tahiry who hooked a left foot shot into the bottom corner to make it 2-1.

Three minutes later, Hall should have headed home captain Nancy’s teasing cross but his downward header flew over the crossbar.

The Gran Kaz winners though extended their advantage in the 57th minute as Dean Mothé combined with Vidot who laid the ball on a plate to Bibi whose cracking long range effort found refuge in the net for a 3-1 scoreline.

In the 68th minute, St Louis scored again from Malagasy substitute Georges Kalo’s pass to Tamboo on the edge of the penalty area and the dreadlocked striker turned sharply to shoot at goal and his shot took a wicked deflection off defender Esparon to wrong foot goalkeeper Dubel for a 4-1 score.

St Louis took their foot off the accelerator and City had two decent chances to cut the deficit. In the 73rd minute, captain Chetty’s curling free kick forced goalkeeper Pleureuse to take emergency action to thwart the danger.

In the 89th minute, Gino Naidoo picked out substitute Kelly Nibourette with a well-weighted cross but he could not guide his header on target.

St Louis’ Kalo also missed a clear chance in the 80th minute after Tahiry’s initial shot had been charged down by goalkeeper Dubel and the new St Louis striker could not head into an empty net as his header came off the crossbar much to the annoyance of the St Louis fans though at this point the result was beyond doubt as they made a bright start to their league campaign to bounce back from four consecutive defeats in the Transitional league to St Michel, two losses to TS Galaxy in the Caf Confederation cup as well as being beaten by Côte d’Or in the season-opening President’s Cup match.

Coach Michel Renaud was pleased with the way his team responded after conceding early to bounce back and win quite convincingly in the end.

“We did not make the best of starts as we conceded a penalty but I’m happy the way the team fought back as they did not panic and played patiently to wear down our opponents and win quite comfortably and we could have won by a bigger scoreline though it was vital to return to winning ways to boost morale in the team,” coach Renaud told Sports NATION.

As for new City coach Joel Decommarmond, who surprisingly replaced Belgian Steve Herbots who had led the team to promotion to the first division and was still there for the Transitional league, he said that his team are still a work in progress.

“I only took over the team two weeks ago and there are many things to work on but I saw some encouraging signs especially in the first half, but we lost our shape in the second period and were punished by our opponents. But we will work on our weaknesses in the coming matches,” the new City coach related to Sports NATION.

R. J-L.