Beach soccer - Real Maldives edge Club Stormy to win Transitional Cup |01 July 2019
REAL MALDIVES … Transitional Cup champions
Real Maldives held off the challenge of Club Stormy to win the Transitional Cup final at the Cable & Wireless Beach Soccer arena on Friday evening in a match which almost did not take place.
In fact this match was scheduled to kick off at 5.15pm but there was no official and finally Gonzague Boniface and Jason Fred decided to take charge of this match which started at 6pm in what was a cagey start as Club Stormy packed their defence to stop Real Maldives captain Michael Cadeau and the first period ended goalless.
Cadeau opened the scoring in the second period with four minutes gone with a spectacular overhead kick to make it 1-0 and four minutes later coach player Don Anacoura’s corner deflected to Loddy Sinon who smashed the ball into the net for a 2-0 lead.
Anacoura provided another assist with three minutes remaining as his throw-in fell to Romany Richard who punished Club Stormy goalkeeper Davis Leon who was way off his line for a 3-0 score.
Real Maldives’ Loddy Sinon though gave away a foul in the dying minutes of this second period and Mike Balette fired past goalkeeper Chris Matombe to make it 3-1 as the match went into the third period where Real Maldives defended their advantage though Sandy Luc did score for Club Stormy in the dying seconds of this match for a 3-2 final score which Real Maldives savoured. Real Maldives coach Anacoura told Sports NATION that he was happy for their young team who have only recently resumed training.
“We have had to overhaul the whole team with young players and we had to be patient today as our opponents tried to defend to frustrate us, but we managed to break them down and it was satisfying to win which boost morale of these players as this team really struggled last season,” coach Anacoura said.
As for Club Stormy coach Herald Kowlessur, he was quite pleased with his team’s performance despite defeat in the final.
“We started well but we had one of our best defenders injured so that’s why we cracked in the second period but we tried to fight back and if we had a fully fit squad we would have won this match as our aim this season is to challenge the top teams,” the Club Stormy coach told Sports NATION.
The cup was presented to Real Maldives by the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) vice-president Dolor Ernesta helped by competition director Clive Delorie.
R. J-L.
