Preseason finals to start

By PATRICIA KEAMO
THE Port Moresby Soccer Association is set to host its preseason finals this weekend with the competition anticipating a heated battle in both the men’s and women’s division.
The men’s division will have their quarterfinal fixtures played on Saturday with the semifinal and grand final set for Sunday.
Acting president Wesley Waiwai said the last six weeks was fun-filled and very competitive that has set the pace for teams going into the proper season in the next two weeks.
The finals fixtures this weekend will see a mixture of premier and lower division teams go head to head to fight for the Hara Cup honours.
Competition manager Joseph Ame said the preseason has shown change in the level of competition as a couple of games have seen upsets caused by lower divisions against premier teams.
Saturday’s first quarterfinal at noon will see an example of that – premiers City Strikers will faceoff with division two team Cloudy Bay.
Cloudy Bay have come off a 4-0 quarterfinal win over premiers Leilam last weekend and club president Malaburgh Imeha said it was a very physical challenge for his side.
The other fixtures will see University and Momase Blue go head-to-head while on the other pitch, Bismarck Torosel take on Momase Red. The main quarterfinal match on Saturday will be a nail-biting clash between Blue Kumuls and FC Genesis at 2pm.
The four winners from Saturday will go on to player the semifinals on Sunday morning to find the grand finalists for the showdown in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, women’s ladder-leaders Finance FC are gearing up for a heated clash with Mungkas in the semifinal on Saturday.
“We know Mungkas will come hard on us especially after we beat them in week one of the preseason,” team manager Carmellina Mwadeda said.
Mungkas captain Alisandra Aipi said the semifinal fixture would be a good challenge.
“We have team that’s made up of young girls and a few senior players who are going to challenge Finance this weekend.”
In the other semifinal, University SC will take on Bismarck at 9am on Saturday with both sides looking to book their finals spot