Football: Airtel Cup-St Michel victorious, St Louis Suns win, La Passe defeat 10-man Dynamo |04 May 2009

Anse Reunion had to make a last-minute change as goalie Ricky Rose suffered a serious looking injury before the match and had to be replaced by Dan Rose.

Don Anacoura scored the only goal of the match in the first half.

La Passe edge 10-man Northern Dynamo

La Digue-based La Passe defeated 10-man Northern Dynamo 3-2 at Stad Linite on Saturday.
Dynamo saw reserve goalie Jake Constant, who had replaced the injured Jules Monnaie, sent off in the 56th minute after he contested a penalty decision with referee Jourdan Benstrong.

The match in itself lacked quality and was at times quite physical and was marred by some dubious decisions.

In the 13th minute, La Passe captain Achille Henriette played the ball over the Dynamo defence to Stephan Morel but he was stopped in his stride as he bore on goal by a late and dubious offside decision by assistant referee Jossy Cedras.

Three minutes later at the other end, Dynamo captain, Malagasy Asman Todisoa, looked clearly offside but assistant referee Raj Chetty failed to flag. It required a recovery challenge by Jeal Gesinghaus, who was playing his first match after a long injury lay-off, to deny the Dynamo forward.

In the 19th minute, La Passe went close to break the deadlock as Malagasy Asman Abdou wriggled his way past a couple of strong challenges to feed Henriette, whose instinctive cross fell invitingly to Morel, but he made a meal of his shot.

Two minutes later, La Passe took the lead as they pounced on a poor clearance by goalie Constant which Abdou intercepted to set up Rick Bibi whose shot on the turn found refuge at the back of the net for a 1-0 score.

In the 33rd minute, La Passe claimed for a penalty as Henriette released Abdou whose cut-back was handled by Jerry Azemia as Malagasy Bruno Saindina threatened. Referee Benstrong waved play on.

Six minutes later, La Passe added a second goal as Abdou threaded a pass to Henriette whose shot was cleared back to him by Teddy Cupidon. Henriette got a second bite of the cherry to shoot from a tight angle. The ball just managed to cross the goal-line despite Steve Henriette’s desperate attempt to clear the danger. Assistant referee Cedras raised his flag to indicate the goal for a 2-0 lead.

La Passe were awarded a penalty in the 56th minute as Rick Bibi was brought down by a crude tackle by Henriette. Dynamo players protested and goalie Constant was shown a straight red card for dissent. Steve Henriette took over in goal but could not stop Saindina’s powerfully struck penalty in the top corner for a 3-0 score.

In the 64th minute, La Passe went close to increase their lead as Henriette’s cross dropped nicely to substitute Darren Waye-Hive whose cross-run shot was headed just wide by Rick Bibi.

However, Dynamo began a mini-revival in the 67th minute as Francis Moumou found space in the La Passe defence to fire at reserve goalie Dave Mussard, who pushed out the shot to Todisoa. He drilled the loose ball onto the cross-bar and in the impending mêlée, Valerio Dorothé kept his cool to rifle past Mussard to reduce the score to 1-3.

Two minutes later, Todisoa latched onto a long ball to hold off Gesinghaus’ challenge to centre to Dorothé who headed past Mussard to complete his brace (2-3).

La Passe though tightened up as they restricted their opponents to a couple of hopeful long shots as they registered their first win over the newly promoted side this season.

Jean Del’Or brace dumps LightStars

St Louis Suns came from behind to defeat LightStars 3-1 on Praslin on Saturday.
Home team LightStars took the lead early in the first half through Renick Esther.

Malagasy Jean Del’Or Tsaralaza leveled the score at 1-1 before half-time before scoring again early in the second half. Wilnes Brutus sealed the victory to inflict LightStars’ first defeat at home this season.

SMB overcome Foresters

On Thursday at Stad Linite, SMB twice came from behind to win 3-2 against Foresters in the first Airtel Cup match.

Lenny Gomme gave Foresters the lead in the 14th minute, but Colin Laporte levelled matters for SMB in the 33rd minute.
Foresters restored their advantage through Egbert Vidot’s first goal of the season in the 37th minute.

Their lead was short-lived as three minutes later, James Bill equalised for SMB to make it 2-2 at half-time.
Former Foresters player Kevin Quatre completed a remarkable match for SMB as he scored the winner in the 66th minute.

R. J-L.