Entertaining double-header on as Milo tourney reaches semifinal stage
The Ministry of Education (MoE) Ground on Carifesta Avenue will today be set alight with an entertaining football double-header in the semifinal round of the Milo Under-18 Schools Football tournament.
Scenes from the Milo U18 tournament thus far
The Petra-organized Milo semifinal stage would feature 2019 champions Christianburg-Wismar Secondary School (CWSS) making a berth for back-to-back final appearances against Golden Grove Secondary from 3pm.
Each team has thus far been formidable in the competition, given the one-off, straight knockout format that has been employed for this year’s competition.
Before their comprehensive victory in last week’s quarterfinals, Golden Grove seemed to have had a liking for penalty shootouts, having won two of their games in this way. A 3-3 meeting with Buxton Secondary went down to penalties, which Golden Grove won 4-2, and again by the same margin in the ensuing penalty-decider against Annandale Secondary.
However, Golden Grove sent home four goals against Friendship Secondary last week, and that should send a stern warning to CWSS that the East Coast outfit have the ability to score consistently.
And while the defending Milo champions have not enjoyed the large-margin victories as their 2019 championship team did, they have also displayed a strong defence; arguably the reason why they are yet to concede a goal in this year’s competition.
If Golden Grove are able to destabilise the defending champions with an early goal, then fans are in for a treat in semifinal 1 of the Milo tournament.
On the other hand, semifinals are foreign territory to Dolphin Secondary and North Ruimveldt Multilateral, both already in semifinal 2. Both teams can be considered underdogs in this tournament, with not many persons having expected them to reach this far.
The resilience and tactical game awareness displayed by either team have rewarded them richly. Dolphin Secondary possess a lethal attacking duo in Caldwell Peters and team captain Gerry Burnette. Finishing, however, has been the team’s Achilles Heel. Surely, if their pass and shot accuracy were higher, Dolphin would have had larger wins than their season’s best of 5-0 against President’s College in last week’s quarterfinals.
On the other hand, North Ruimveldt have been extremely reliant on the talents of Akeem Perriera, who has fuelled the team’s success. This youngster has accumulated 6 goals from three games, with a helmet-trick on one occasion. This does not serve to take away from the team’s defensive line, who have done commendable work to back up Perriera’s heroics.
Nonetheless, the obvious key to the semifinal victory for either Dolphin or North Ruimveldt would be to transfer their prolific scorers to the front. As such, an entertaining second game is also on the cards today.
Semifinal one will kick off at 3pm at the MoE Ground, while semifinal two is slated to commence at 5pm at the same venue. (Jemima Holmes)
Dolphin: 5, vs Charlestown: 1
Goal-scorers
Dolphin
Brian Burnette: 15
Gerry Burnette: 47, 64
Jaquan Cole: 32, 40
