Football: Airtel Cup: St Louis Suns set the record straight against The Lions |04 September 2014

. Côte d’Or beat LightStars 4-2

St Louis Suns set the record straight against The Lions by beating them 3-0 at Stad Linite on Tuesday afternoon to avenge their first-round defeat in the Airtel Cup competition.

On the same day at the Amitié Stadium on Praslin, 2012 Airtel Cup winners Côte d’Or defeated LightStars 4-2 in a pool B match.
St Louis Suns and The Lions are both aspiring to reach the semifinal stage of the Airtel Cup in what is proving to be a three-horse race alongside cup holders St Michel in pool A.

The Lions though will feel hard done by this result as they gave a lot in this match but got nothing in return in what was a very physical and bruising encounter with plenty of entertainment.

The boys of coach Gavin Jeanne drew first blood in the 13th minute as Rachim Padayachy dispossessed St Louis Suns’ Nigerian player Kazeem Sulaimon to feed Jude Nancy who filtered a pass to Laurent Vel whose attempted lob sailed agonisingly wide of the advancing goalkeeper Joel Lesperance’s goal.

In the 18th minute St Louis Suns produced a counter-attack with blistering pace as Sulaimon released his colleague Kazeem Adeyeri who outsprinted defender Andrew Onezia to flash the ball across goal to Roddy Melanie who placed his shot into the near post via the post for a 1-0 lead. This was his fourth goal in his two matches after his hat-trick last week against St Francis.

The goal forced The Lions to pour forward and in the 32nd minute, former St Louis Suns striker, Malagasy Clariel, played a decent ball to Gabonese Tony Moussikoue but he shot weakly at goalkeeper Lesperance.

The Lions should have drawn level on the stroke of half-time from a superb curling free kick by Vel in the St Louis Suns penalty area but somehow Clariel miscued a clear header with the goal at his mercy.

The second half was a more fiercely contested affair as The Lions put St Louis Suns under a lot of pressure and in the 50th minute, Vel sent another teasing free kick which Brian Dorby met with a header which came off the crossbar to captain Agathine but he could not direct his shot on target.

Two minutes later, The Lions were not happy with the official after a clear foul on Vel was not given allowing St Louis Suns’ latest recruit, Nigerian Oladele Olamiti Bolarinwa the opportunity to send his teammate Adeyeri galloping down the left and glide past two defenders and bore on goal but goalkeeper Jerome Dingwall dived at his feet to deny him.

The Lions though were still dominant and just past the hour mark Malagasy Herizo Razaparany picked out Clariel with his cross but he headed straight at goalkeeper Lesperance.

A minute later, The Lions had an even better chance as Razaparany threaded a pass to Vel but goalkeeper Lesperance was quick off his line to block the lively Vel’s shot.

St Louis Suns pulled off captain Mervin Mathiot for Denis Barbé in the 70th minute and he brought a calming influence as they tried to stop The Lions’ domination in midfield but Vel still had a glorious opportunity to level matters in the 80th minute from Razaparny’s cross which sailed over defenders Bertrand Esther and Nigel Freminot. But with only goalkeeper Lesperance to beat, he shot tamely allowing the St Louis Suns’ custodian to smother the shot.

Vel forced a good save out of goalkeeper Lesperance in the 84th minute after a good move involving Padayachy and Clariel to send substitute Darrel Damoo racing down the right and he pulled the ball to Vel on the edge of the penalty area.

In the 88th minute, Razaparany floated a corner kick in a crowded penalty area and Maurice Ahmed rose higher but could not hit the back of the net with goalkeeper Lesperance out of his goal.

A minute later, St Louis Suns broke The Lions’ heart as they added a second goal after Sulaimon’s shot from the edge of the penalty area deflected off a defender and fell invitingly to Adeyeri who was lurking and he fired past goalkeeper Dingwall for a 2-0 lead.

St Louis Suns sealed The Lions’ fate in injury time as the impressive Melanie combined with substitute Mikael Tirant before finding space to send a pinpoint cross to Sulaimon who scored with a bullet header which flew past goalkeeper Dingwall and crashed into the net for a 3-0 final score.

Although the margin looks big, it was a hard-fought victory for St Louis Suns, propelling them into top spot in pool A ahead of The Lions who will now have to beat St Michel if they are to qualify for the semis.

Coach Gavin Jeanne though still believes in his team’s chances as he expressed his disappointment with Tuesday’s result.

“Our finishing again let us down and I’m disappointed as we put in a good performance but the final result does not reflect the match and we tried to change things late in the game and play with three at the back as we took risks as the points were very important but we just wasted the chances we created. We have another tough match on Saturday but we still think we have a chance in this pool,” coach Jeanne told Sports Nation.

As for his counterpart coach Patrick Cafrine, he was just pleased his team had weathered the storm to win the points.

“It was a very intense and balanced encounter where we played well in the first half but had to endure a lot of pressure in the second and our defence did well to keep our opponents at bay. But we are happy with the win as this is a good result for us,” coach Cafrine said.

St Louis Suns will play again on Friday against Northern Dynamo while The Lions are in action on Saturday when they face cup holders St Michel in this exciting pool A in the Airtel Cup.

Côte d’Or coast past LightStars

2012 Airtel Cup winners Côte d’Or defeated LightStars 4-2 on Tuesday at the Amitié Stadium in a pool B match.

Côte d’Or opened the scoring in the seventh minute through Dine Suzette for a 1-0 lead but surprisingly the Barclays league champions could not add to their tally in this half.

Suzette completed his brace five minutes in the second half as he made it 2-0 and in the 70th minute Malagasy Paul Bruyelle scored for a 3-0 advantage.

In the 75th minute, Malagasy Jean Tigana got on the score sheet for a 4-0 score but LightStars cut the deficit in the 80th minute from the penalty spot after Côte d’Or defender Gervais Saminadin brought down Malagasy Mario Ravo for a penalty awarded by referee Keren Yocette.

Ravo picked himself up to tuck the ball home for a 1-4 score and in the 88th minute youth player Jean Yves Victor, who had come in as a substitute, netted a second for LightStars to give the final score a credible look at 4-2.   


R. J-L.