Cote D’Or & St Michel victorious in first match
2013 league champions Cote D’Or and cup winners St Michel both opened their campaign in the Champions Cup with wins on Saturday.
The four teams involved in this inaugural tournament though had to endure the torrential downpour which made the pitch heavy both on Praslin and Mahé.
Despite this both teams came out of their encounters with morale-boosting wins as they continued their preparation for their participation in the African competitions next month.
Cote D’Or edge Revengers
First Division league champions Cote D’Or clashed with their rivals Revengers at the Amitié playing field in the first match of the afternoon.
Benoit Marie set Cote D’Or on their way to a victory with a strike early in the second half to make it 1-0.
Cote D’Or made sure of the win with their new signing Ryan Antat who left St Francis to move to Praslin adding his name to the scoresheet on his debut for a comfortable 2-0 win.
St Michel FC
The Cote D’Or coach Ahmed Abdou was happy with his team’s winning start in their first official match this season.
“I am happy with the team’s performance despite the heavy rain and slippery conditions. This competition will help us in our preparation and we are looking forward to the next match,” Coach Abdou told TODAY Sports.
Meanwhile, the Revengers’ coach Basil Hoareau was satisfied with his team’s match despite the defeat.
“We did not expect to win as we have just started training but we hope we can correct the mistakes we committed in this first
encounter so that we can put in a better performance in the next match,” Coach Hoareau told TODAY sports.
St Michel a class above Rude Boyz
St Michel grabbed hold of this match by the scruff of its neck from the kick off as they swarmed all over the Third Division league champions Rude Boyz.
St Michel had given a debut to their latest foreign import Ugandan Emmanuel Olupot whose partnership with Jimmy Radafison in defence was rarely tested even though Olupot was booked in the first half by Referee Emile Fred for a rash challenge on Marcus Esparon.
St Michel had the lion’s share of possession as they circulated the ball in an attempt to stretch Rude Boyz and tire them out as they chased their opponents over long periods. Malagasy Hassan Aly dictated the pace of the game with Rude Boyz struggling to match St Michel’s tempo.
However, the St Michel team took time to find their feet in front of the goal where they always looked likely to break the deadlock. They duly went ahead in the 16th minutes as Aly combined with Alex Nibourette who laid the ball to Nelson Laurence to ram the ball past goalkeeper Sandy Victor for a 1-0 lead.
This opening goal should have opened the floodgates for St Michel but Laurence was guilty of a bad miss just past the half hour mark after he had glided past goalie Victor but could not direct his shot into an empty net.
Cote D'Or FC
St Michel Coach Ralph Jean-Louis reshuffled the pack in the second period sending on Gervais Waye-Hive to give their team more width whilst Leeroy Mathiot was pushed into the forward line alongside Laurence. The change proved a masterstroke.
Mathiot repaid his coach’s faith in him in the 53rd minute after he was given too much room to curl a ball into the far corner to make 2-0.
St Michel added a third goal in the 63rd minute after Aly’s deep corner was shot at the goal by Waye-Hive but the shot was deflected to the lurking Mathiot who buried the loose ball into the roof of the net for a 3-0 score.
In the 66th minute Waye- Hive raced onto a through ball to score with a shot which goalie Victor could not hold for a convincing 4-0 result.
The Rude Boyz’ manager Anil Jacques said that St Michel was a tough customer and were a class above them.
“It was a very tough match for my team and St Michel were better than us in all areas of the pitch,” the player-cum-manager Jacques told TODAY Sports.
As for St Michel Andrew Jean-Louis, he felt this win was a good morale booster for his team. “We expected to win against this team from a lower division. We also created loads of scoring opportunities which we did not utilize. We hope we will play with better coordination and movement as our physical condition continues to improve with every match we play,” Manager Jean-Louis explained.
The four teams will be in action again in the return matches on Wednesday.
Source: today.sc 1-21-14