The first games in round 2 of the league took place last Sunday 14th May. We traveled to North East Stars home ground at Ojoe Road, Sangre Grande. Two of the three games were played with both being very competitive. The other was rained out.
As usual, the times each age group plays is specific every match day, U-14 at 10:00am, U-16 at 2:00pm and U-18 at 4:00pm. Persistent and heavy rains on Sunday morning caused the officials to call off the U-14 match. This was totally justified as the ground became water logged. The ball was not able to move along the ground. This game will have to be rescheduled.
By 2:00pm, which is when the U-16 game is played the sun was out in its splendor and the ground had drained and dried off well enough for the match to be played. The first half was enthralling with the play going back and forth, with no quarter given by either team. During this part of the game we had more chances to take the lead but all were squandered. North East had a couple of sights at our goal, but any effort was quickly snuffed out by our defense. The half ended even, no goal by either team.
The second half was started in a frenzy by Defence Force. The tempo of the game was raised by our players and North East were placed under more pressure. Rewards were gained in the 60th minute when Desailly Westfield received a through ball and on seeing the goalkeeper off his line, chipped the ball over him. North east did not lie down, this seemed to invigorate them even more and they got the equalizer in the 70th minute. Defence Force’s keeper dived to block a shot but could not reach it, only to see a North East player on the far post tapping the ball in, 1-1. Both teams went for the winner after the equalizer, but Defence Force always seemed to be the one to do so and finally did with nearly the last kick of the game. A corner was awarded, which Tyrique Huggins curved directly into the goal in the 76th minute. This seemed to knock some of the stuffing out of North East Stars, with 4 minutes to go. The game ended 1-2, in favor of Defense Force.
Our U-18 team struggled, but battled for the entire 90 minutes of their game. North East definitely seemed to have the upper hand from the onset. With some very skillful players up front, especially on the flanks, they tormented the defense, but the guys stood their ground and held firm. We hardly bothered their custodian in the first half, but neither did they test ours, even though they had a much higher percentage of ball possession than us. This speaks well for us, for we were tight in defence and did not give them too many sights or openings to goal. During the second half it was much of the same, but we did give them something to think out defensively and this curtailed their attacking progress somewhat. In the end, none of the defences or goalkeepers were breached and the game ended 0-0. We were quite contented to come away with a point.
