Gabutu too good

Normal, Sports
Source:

The National Monday, December 13, 2010

By TRAVERTZ MABONE
THE National Gaming Control Board Eastern Papua Carnival came to a close yesterday with Gabutu claiming this year as the outright winners in both the men’s and women’s divisions.
With the absence of both Galea and Simla, the men’s semis on Saturday saw Aleph triumph over  Ebony Woods to make it to the grand final while Gabutu outclassed the Mixmates to make their second grand final appearance in eight years.
During yesterday’s major men’s cup final Gabutu opened up with Maso Haro finding the back of the nets to bring Gabutu into an early 1-0 lead.
Gabutu looked to have made more of an impact with the ball along with some  boisterous crowd backing at the Bisini soccer grounds, their better composure and skill with the ball gave them the upper hand on Aleph.
It was until the first half’s final 10 minutes that Gabutu’s Eastern Stars import Enoch Abraham scored a goal to put  Gabutu in a comfortable  2-0 lead.
Aleph however went into the second half all fired up, dominating possession and consistently gaining good field positiion however they convert all that territory and possession to points leaving them to rue their opportunities by full time .
Credit must go to Gabutu’s staunch defence which thwarted almost every one of Aleph’s scoring chance.
Gabutu mostly defended the entire second half and did a good job at it to seal the 2010 EPC title 2-0.
In the women’s major cup playoff, Gabutu and Nim virtually cancelled each other out with their tight defence and the match went goal-less untill the end of regulation time. Gabutu completed the double winning a penalty shoot out 3-0 over  Nim to be crowned women’s champions.
President of the Gabutu Football Club Simon Dobin was all too delighted to have both his teams take this year’s titles.
“Our performance this year was just outstanding mostly because of sticking to our plans and fighting our way through, I am extremely joyful of this year’s sides and congratulate our players for the hard work they’ve done since day one.” Dobin said.
Also the newly elected president of the EPC Bede Tomokita remarked that his year’s tournament had been one of the most successful tournaments held so far.
“We have put our foot down to clamp down of spectator violence that has riddled the competition which was mostly due to our emphasis of non alcohol consumption while also having a very experienced team managing the competition.” TOmokita said.
He added that next year’s tournament will be bigger and better and hopes to involve other awareness campaigns to address the issues through sport, especially soccer.
This year for the first time they’ve included an in-depth awareness on HIV and Aids all through out the tournament.