By Treiston Joseph
You had to be there to witness the electricity of one of the best futsal matches to date as Bent Street pulled off a miraculous 5-4 comeback against Tiger Bay to seal the berth in the semifinal round of the Corona Futsal Tournament on Saturday evening at the National Gymnasium.
The start alone with James Meredith scoring in the first minute to give Tiger Bay the lead gave the game some interest.
However, as has been the case for Bent Street, their young talent showed up and Kelsey Benjamin equalized in 13th before putting his side up 2-1 with another comfortable strike off a connecting pass from teammate Job Caesar in the 18th minute.
Alfred equalized just seconds after Benjamin’s goal before putting Tiger Bay up 3-2 in the 24th minute.
Captain Daniel Wilson releases a hard shot from the right side that snuck into the goal to equalize in the 24th minute as well to send the game to extra time.
Alfred’s hat-trick goal in the 25th minute that seemingly sealed the game at that point, sent the crowd buzzing.
However, hearts quickly sunk when Wilson again dropped the equalizer in the 26th minute and just seconds after released a shot from about half court to rock the top of the net and give Bent Street the win.
Meanwhile, Sparta Boss got a top win in yet another classic with a 5-4 win against Future Stars, who were unable to pull off a Bent Street like comeback.
Future Stars started the goal scoring first with a shot from Kareem Knights in the eighth minute but Sparta responded with back-to-back strikes from Sheldon Shepherd and Jeremy Garrett in the 14th and 15th minutes, respectively.
Knight would equalize in the 16th for his double while Marvin Carter got the lead for Future stars in the 22nd minute that was very short lived.
Garrett notched his double in the 23rd that equalized the game and Shepherd got his double as well in the 24th to put Sparta Boss up 4-3. Garrett continued his brilliance with another goal in the 26th to put the game out of reach for Future Stars despite a goal by Jamal Collier in the 27th minute.
In other results, Leopold Street cruised to a 3-1 win over West Front Road while Alpha Warriors won 3-2 on penalty kicks after 2-2 draw with California Square.
The semifinal of the event will be held during the week at the National Gymnasium.
