SFSF: GM Bakery trophy holders Sogi go marching on after a comfortable 2-0 win against a lackluster Lepea in the feature match at Tuana’imato last weekend.
Sogi again retained the trophy with surprising ease against Lepea who gifted two goals late in the second half through some sloppy defending. The game was sparked with a little controversy from the outset with the appearance of Ben Timo back in the gold of Sogi who had been absent from the first round. How important this was to be no one could have predicted.
Sogi started the brighter of the sides and without doubt should have been at least been two goals up at half time with the Lepea defence at times at sixes and sevens and unable to cope with the pace of the Sogi attack. Poor finishing kept Lepea in the game and with the introduction of Des Faaiuaso and Mike Edward midway into the half an improved performance from Lepea was expected. This was not to be with the stars of Lepea failing to shine.
The second half continued much in the same vain as the first with Sogi continuing to win most of the battles and although not pretty, they restricted Lepea to little or nothing in front of goal. Wing back Kiwi Timo covered every inch of grass and defender Iupeli Ioane kept all that Lepea could muster at bay, with a solid performance at the back.
Then up popped Ben Timo to score two identical goals. The first broke the stalemate at the 70th minute mark. Timo nipped in between hesitant defenders and goalkeeper Fatuvalu Numia to score an opportunist goal from a long ball down the middle. It was just like an action replay, when a few minutes later, he repeated his trick and notched his second of the game. Game over and in the end a comfortable victory when all the news and hype before hand pointed to a much tougher encounter.
In other matches, Moataa took on Lupe ole Soaga who nicked the points with a 2-1 win in a closely fought game whilst
newly promoted Moamoa continued their good form with a convincing win thrashing a disappointing Vaivase-tai team 5-0 who on this form look to have a long hard season ahead.
Kiwi and Sinamoga were locked in a tight match and a late penalty sealed it for Kiwi in a dramatic 3-2 win. Two straight losses for the Sinamoga club now but again the young team can only improve and mature with age and experience.
It was predicted that the Manumea Samoa training squad would add some spice to the GM Bakery competition as part of their preparations for the World Cup qualifiers Samoa is hosting in May. No one would have predicted how much with the game having to be abandoned late in the second half, following a melee between players.
A tough encounter was expected and this proved correct but the Manumea trialists generally controlled the game with Pua Lemana dominant in the middle of the park and Lafaele Pesa organising his defence that was generally never troubled.
Striker Afasene Tusitala scored in the first half with a tenacious effort following a good move and cross from the right by Amby. This proved to be the only goal with the game.
The GM Bakery Cup round 3 kicks off on Saturday 20th March at the J.S. Blatter Fields at Tuanaimato.
Watch out for our Match Day 3 Preview later this week with the news and results to be found in Headline News in – www.soccersamoa.ws