Morobe claim cup

The National Sports

By JIMMY KALEBE
MOROBE Football Association crowned the winners of Besta FA Cup men’s division beating defending champions Madang’s Almami 3-0 win in a thrilling final at the PNGFA Academy in Lae on Sunday.
The grand final was the repetition of July’s game in Madang when Almami bagged the first spot beating MFA 1-0 in the Momase Regional Besta Qualifier.
MFA received K20,000 and the cup while Almami bagged the runners-up prize with K15, 000 and a trophy.
MFA scored first in through captain Nigel Dabinyaba in the 15th minute.
Despite strong defence put up by Almami’s Nigel Malangian and Julius Mime, the men from Lae were able to find the net minutes before half time through player-of-the-match 17-year-old John Moasi.
Almami on the other hand had several attempts at the goal in the dying minutes of the first half through Jordan Karen and Brendon Kambuel but could not put scores on the board for the Madang side due to some committed defence by Morobe.
Sombo Goro found the back of the net in the 60th minute and Morobe looked to be the side with all the momentum and confidence heading into the final quarter of the game.
Almami lifted late in the contest but their efforts came to naught as they failed to score a goal.
Third place in the men’s division went to Kimbe, who earned K10,000 in prize money, while settling in fourth place were Hood Lagoon K5000.
In the women’s grand final, Port Moresby Soccer Association beat Morobe Football Association 2-1, earning K20,000 and the cup while Morobe received K15,000 and trophy.
Kimbe women finished third overall claiming K10,000 in prize money while Goroka women’s division got K5000.
Meanwhile, during the presentation of the prizes, International Food Corporation senior sales and marketing manager Roslan Wahed said the company was supportive of the tournament because it was part of maintaining a good standard of soccer in the country.
“We want to help develop soccer in the country and make some of the local players marketable in the national and international scene,” Wahed said.
“We will still support the staging of this Besta FA Cup in the coming years as we have done so over the last five years and this year we sponsored the three-day tournament with K100,000.”