Romantic, Tenament for Claro/INSPORTS final
ROMANTIC United of Kingston and Tenament Youth of St James registered contrasting 2-0 wins last Sunday and will square off in the final of the CLARO/INSPORTS All-Island Community League Football Championship.
The Kingston champions defeated Crook’s Street United, also of Kingston, at the Constant Spring playing field, while the St James winners tagged the St Ann parish champions, Ocho Rios Sports Club, at the Elletson Wakeland Centre in Trelawny.
Meanwhile, the Grand Final will be played on Saturday, May 28 at the National Stadium beginning at 3:00 pm with the third- and fourth-place play-off game scheduled to start at 1:00 pm at the National Stadium. Both teams will be boasting unbeaten records entering the final.
Crook’s Street, who went through the round-of-16 as a qualifier, quickly applied pressure on Romantic through flowing passes produced from Jermain Thompson, Oneil Marshall, Sheldon Foster and Victor Robinson. However, they failed to convert a number of close calls inside the penalty box.
After weathering the early attacks from Crook’s Street, Romantic came into their own with some smooth-flowing counter-attacking plays. A long ball that went over the heads of the defenders found Kemar Woodley, but with only goalkeeper Jermaine Frazer to beat, his shot went straight to the custodian, who parried it onto the crossbar.
The ball, however, was kept in play from the rebound and another shot from Gerald Reid inside the 18-yard box deflected off a defender for a corner. Reid’s shot from inside from the corner kick deflected for yet another corner. The ball was eventually clear from the second corner taken by Romantic.
From a swift counter-attacking combination, Damion Taylor of Crook’s Street received an opportunity to put his team ahead by collecting a pass at the edge of the penalty area, but his low grounder towards goal went off target brushing the upright.
Action switched from end to end from then onwards, without either team converting chances created on each other’s goals. Romantic, however, looked more positive and purposeful than Crook’s Street, especially with their attacks, and from one of these productive co-ordinations, they finally took the lead in the 36th minute.
An attack from Romantic on the right flank resulted in a spot kick taken after a player was fouled by a Crook’s Street defender. The kick floated inside the penalty box where goalkeeper Donovan Barrett left his line to try to take possession, but the ball fell from his hands and gave Damion Barrett the opportunity to cannon home a low grounder into the back of the goal for a 1-0 lead.
Crook’s Street, however, should have found the equaliser a few minutes later and in the process squandered the opportunity from a ball squared from the right flank inside the Romantic penalty box.
The ball eluded a defender and a melée resulted. Three chances were wasted as, Marshall on the left of the goal missed the ball that rebound off goalkeeper Frazer to the left side of the goal, where Foster also missed before another player, who shot wide also from the edge of the penalty box.
Reid should have put Romantic 2-0 in the lead after another high-floating cross inside the Crook’s Street penalty area that once again went over the heads of the defence on the left side.
He had goalkeeper Barrett at his mercy to beat as his header to goal went past the left upright. The half ended without any further goals being scored.
The second half was evenly contested with Crook’s Street looking more dangerous in their approach and applying more pressure on Romantic as they went in search of the equaliser, but they failed to take a shot at goal, thus losing possession of the ball to their opposing defenders.
Romantic, however, came back strongly midway the second half, carving out neat combinations through Gerald Reid, Damion Barrett, Rohan Reid, Courtney Reid and Dujohn McMorris. Several of Romantic’s shots to goal went either straight to goalkeeper Barrett, or off target, but they were dominating the proceedings.
Kingston parish champions Romantic finally scored their second goal to clinch the match from a ball played long on the left flank. Two players went in chase — a defender from Crook’s Street in the right back position and Donovan Johnson of Romantic on the left flank.
The defender carried the ball inside his goal area but slipped in the process and lost possession of the ball. Donovan Johnson seized the chance and unleashed a hard, low grounder past goalkeeper Frazer, who had left his line and left the goal unprotected for a 2-0 win for Romantic.
Meanwhile, in the other semi-final played at Elletson Wakeland, first-half goals from Curtis Cameron and Roman Wilson in the 11th and 18th minutes, respectively, gave Tenament a berth in the championship decider.