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De Silva delight for Central; Sharks cruise past Point Fortin
« on: September 27, 2015, 02:33:49 PM »
De Silva delight for Central; Sharks cruise past Point Fortin
By Lasana Liburd (Wired868.com)

Central FC midfielder Sean De Silva notched an opening day double at Mahaica Oval yesterday as the defending Pro League champion club got its 2015/16 season off to a flawless start with a 3-0 win over Point Fortin Civic.
“I think coming off the CONCACAF performance this was a little bit lower,” Central coach Ross Russell told Wired868. “Our opponents did well and made things difficult, so this wasn’t as smooth as we wanted it to be. But it is a win.”
Difficult is clearly relative. Apart from keeping a leash on his enthusiastic and talkative right back, Kaydion “Drogba” Gabriel, Russell surely enjoyed his calmest day in charge at the “Couva Sharks” to date.
Point Fortin did not roll over. But it is too early in the cycle of coach Leroy De Leon’s young team for them to pose much threat to a Central team that is already a month and a half into its competitive season.
“I am still mixing and matching to see who can do what,” said De Leon. “But we will get there.”
De Leon got no sympathy from the Central club that poached his most potent attacker, Marcus “Lobo” Joseph, and his captain and defensive lynchpin, Andre Ettienne.
And, if you believe the champion club was too sophisticated to taunt its struggling rival, think again.
“Ross Russell went down south, in an army van,” sang the “Central Choir”, “came back with a defender, Andre Ettienne.”
Ettienne, as it turned out, was absent through injury while playmaker Ataulla Guerra and tricky winger Jason Marcano were also missing from Russell’s 18-man squad. But the Sharks still had ample firepower to handle their host team.
There were over 800 supporters at the fixture in Mahaica Oval, which is sizeable by Pro League standards but tame compared to when Joseph and Andre Toussaint, now at DIRECTV W Connection, were in Point Fortin’s first team.
De Leon, an all-time Trinidad and Tobago legend, still has talent within the team’s ranks although, by his own admission, he is still in the experimental phase.
Yesterday, Shackiel Henry, who starred as an inverted winged attacker for the Trinidad and Tobago National Under-23 Team at the July 2015 Pan American Games, was used as a fairly orthodox right side midfielder with the inventive Akeem Redhead on the other flank.
De Leon said he asked both players to stay wide. But, at a glance, their movement seemed far too predictable for the Central defence and surely Civic would need them to be much more involved if the proud but financially-strapped club is to have any joy this season.
Henry’s and Redhead’s tame performances yesterday made the result inevitable. Although the main problem was the centre of the park, where Central veteran Marvin Oliver was imperious and his partner, Elton John, was tidy and efficient.
Civic’s central midfielders, Kelvin “Supers” Modeste and Jayson “Mouse” Joseph, snapped and snarled but could not throw them off their game.
Read more: http://wired868.com/2015/09/27/de-silva-delight-for-central-sharks-cruise-past-point-fortin/

 

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