Lae Football Association take double at Momase Besta titles

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The National – Tuesday, June 28, 2011

By PISAI GUMAR
THE Lae Football Association’s men’s and women’s teams triumphed over other centres as the Momase Besta Cup soccer champions and will represent the region for final count down in Port Moresby in August.
Madang men who raised their provincial flag after beating LFA 2-1 in opening match met their fate going down to LFA 1-0 in the grand final.
Despite the mud and puddles, the young guns, mostly National Soccer League players, fought a tough tussle in the first 45 minutes that saw Madang breach LFA’s goal several times.
The wet conditions on grounds one and two made it hard for more than 1,000 spectators who flocked to the grounds at Panamex Park the during wet weather.
However, a lack of time management also delayed the main game which saw the finals started at 4.20pm pushing the game into the early evening.
Into the dying minutes, Rodney Kalau drove the ball down the northern side of ground one and hit a cross through the penalty area for Raymond Gunemba to connect into the net.
This was Gunemba’s fifth goal of the two-day competition, earning him men’s top goal scorer award.  
The men’s semi-final saw Loha Customs and Forwarding Wau going down to Madang 2-1 while LFA dashed Lahi’s hopes 2-0.
In the women’s semi-final, LFA walked over Madang 3-0 while Lahi and Wau played to a 1-1 tie and in the penalty shootout Lahi held their nerve beating Wau 3-1.
In the women’s grand final, LFA upset Lahi 4-0.
Madang’s NSL representatives Neill Hans, Metsuel Segu and Adrian Komu could not perform to expectations unlike their LFA counterparts Gunemba, Ian Yanum, Ronald Warisang, Goroba Tawa, Valentine Nelson and Helmut Fugre.
Also featuring in other teams’ line-ups were young U20 Besta FC players Waniya Mawagien, Tarsicius Mandari, Sam Farock and Nigel Dabinyaba.
Women’s top goal scorer and fair play award went to LFA’s Jina Limbai and Yasap Simon respectively while team fair play award went to the Madang women.
Moses Sine from Wau received the men’s player of the tournament award while the referee of the tournament award went to Anna Yapi from LFA.