Football: Land Marine Cup-St Louis Suns dump La Passe to contest final |21 November 2008
Their opponents in the final are no others than bitter rivals and league champions St Michel, who are aiming for a clean sweep of honours this season.
La Passe contributed much to the tense semifinal encounter, which could have gone either way, and they were hard done by in the dying minutes as they were denied a penalty.
After the match, La Passe players circled referee Jean-Claude Labrosse and his assistants, who had not awarded them what they thought was a penalty, and substitute Melvin Uranie was shown the red card as he had a go at the man in black. The players had to be restrained by club officials as they vented their anger.
St Louis Suns drew first blood in the sixth minute from Malagasy Jimmy Radafison’s thumping 35m free-kick, which La Passe’s goalie Vincent Euphrasie did well to get behind as it threatened to swerve.
La Passe were rather cagey as Malagasy Asman Abdou was deployed to man-mark Trevor Poiret and Hamed Adrienne played as a lone striker.
St Louis Suns scored the only goal of the game in the 20th minute as Radafison held off Achille Henriette and elbowed the former St Louis Suns player before releasing Jude Nancy. The latter linked up with Poiret, who penetrated the La Passe defence to lay the ball to Malagasy Jean Del’Or Tsaralaza and he squeezed his low shot past Euphrasie for a 1-0 lead.
The game suddenly sprang to life and on the half-hour mark, Henriette, who had been involved with Radafison in some unsportsmanlike play, curled in a corner which St Louis Suns’ goalie Eugene Valentin struggled to clear.
La Passe caused St Louis Suns all sorts of problems with a series of corners. In the 32nd minute, Malagasy Bruno Saindina struck a driving corner kick to colleague and captain Eric Rajaobery at the near post and his flicked header forced Valentin to take desperate measures to thwart the danger.
Five minutes later, Rajaobery chased a long ball which inadvertently hit Steven Constance on the back of the head. Rajaobery tried an overhead kick which captain Jonathan Bibi headed for a corner with Valentin off his line.
From the resulting corner taken by Saindina, the ball was half-cleared to Abdou, whose stinging shot was parried by Valentin.
In the 39th minute, Saindina fired a curling shot which Valentin pushed out.
St Louis Suns slowly weathered the storm, and in the 44th minute Denis Barbé floated a corner which was met by Congolese Jonathan Mbanze’s glancing header, which sailed narrowly wide.
La Passe came all out to level matters in the second half, and in the 48th minute Saindina’s curling free kick fell to Henriette at the far post but he headed into the side-netting.
In the 59th minute, Rajaobery threaded a pass to Adrienne, who raced clear and his thumping near-post shot was turned out for a corner.
La Passe continued to press for an equaliser and in the 71st minute they should have drawn level from Henriette’s in-swinging corner, which fell to Pierre Fanchette from two metres out, but he headed over the bar.
Four minutes later, in a rare St Louis Suns attack which created a mêlée in the La Passe penalty area, the ball dropped invitingly to Yannick Charlette but he surprisingly missed the target.
In the 85th minute, La Passe again went agonisingly close as Rajaobery laid the ball to Abdou, but Ronny Hoareau produced a great last-ditch tackle to deny a clear goal-scoring opportunity.
La Passe were furious with referee Labrosse in the third minute of injury time as Abdou’s strong cross came off Radafison’s hand in the penalty area. La Passe were convinced it was a penalty but the referee did not have the heart to point to the spot and allowed play to go on.
At the end of match, St Louis Suns breathed a big sigh of relief while La Passe felt cheated.
St Louis Suns’ coach Marc Mathiot said he was pleased his team had won a very tough match – they welcomed reaching the final after struggling for the last two years.
R. J-L.