Football: SeyPearl Premier league |26 October 2019

Dynamo dent St Louis’ progress

Northern Dynamo fought back from a two-goal deficit to defeat St Louis 3-2 in an exciting SeyPearl premier league match at Stad Linite on Thursday afternoon.

St Louis took the lead in the 23rd minute of this match from Gerick Vidot’s floated corner kick which was headed goalward by Juninho Mathiot where Malagasy Tahiry forced the ball over the line past goalie Ricky Pool for a 1-0 lead.

Dynamo should have made the most of a decent chance in the 25th minute from Malagasy Patrick Rasaminana’s free kick to Gambian Musa Njie but he miscued his volley from the penalty edge.

A minute later, St Louis doubled their lead from a perfectly weighted pass by Karl Hall into the path of Tahiry who found space in the Dynamo defence to race clear and slot the ball past the advancing goalie Pool for a 2-0 advantage but St Louis then lost defender Juninho Mathiot through injury and he was replaced by Yuri Bibi.

In the 33rd minute, St Louis almost added a third from Vidot’s near post corner but Hall guided his free header just wide.

Dynamo cut the deficit in the 41st minute from Lucas Panayi’s corner which was met by Marlon Sophola’s towering header and though St Louis reserve goalie Gino Pleureuse got a touch to the ball, assistant referee Gerald Pool raised his flag to indicate to referee Egbert Havelock, who had a poor game, that the ball had crossed the goal line and he awarded the goal to make it 2-1 at half time.

Dynamo came out for the second period with all guns blazing and in the 52nd minute Malagasy Patrick played a cross field pass to Aldo Dufresne which St Louis defender Danny Madeleine had it covered but he dilly dallied on the ball and Dufresne dispossessed him as he claimed for handball and the Dynamo flying winger blasted the ball into the net for a 2-2 score.

The game now became very intriguing as both teams went for all three points and in the 70th minute, Collin Bibi exchanged passes with Tahiry who should have gone for glory inside the penalty area but he tried to set up Gervais Waye-Hive who was flagged offside.

St Louis thought they had equalised in the 73rd minute from a clever free kick by Tahiry who played the ball to Madeleine who rifled the ball low into the bottom corner of the Dynamo goal from outside the penalty as Dynamo thought the Malagsy was going to float the ball into the penalty area but assistant referee Pool raised his flag to rule out the goal for a not so evident offside as the St Louis players protested in vain.

St Louis was again not happy with referee Havelock in the 77th minute after a good move down the right and Waye-Hive’s cross seemed to come off a defender’s hand but the official waved play on.

To add insult to injury, Dynamo broke instantly and Dufresne flashed his cross across goal and the retreating Yuri Bibi inadvertently deflected the ball which sailed over goalie Pleureuse for an own goal to make it 3-2 in Dynamo’s favour as they completed a remarkable turnaround.

Dynamo should have stretched their lead in the 84th minute as they countered and Panayi released substitute Carlos Onezime who skipped past goalie Pleureuse but his shot was blocked and he played the rebound to Patrick on the penalty edge but he fired over the cross bar.

St Louis also had two glorious opportunities to rescue at least a point in this match firstly in the 88th minute as Hall linked up with Tahiry before playing the ball at the feet of substitute Malagasy striker Angelito who was clean through but goalie Pool stood defiant to charge down his close range shot.

Waye-Hive had the chance to salvage a draw for his team from another superb pass by Hall to put him face to face with goalie Pool but the Dynamo shot stopper blocked his shot to inspire his team to sink St Louis who suffered their third loss in five league matches and their manager Davis Khan was very disappointed with the performance of his players when he spoke to Sports NATION.

“We had so many chances to win this match but we did not make use of and then we gifted our opponent two goals which is unacceptable and we have to improve our performance,” claimed the St Louis manager.

R.J-L