As­cen­sion Foot­ball League Thread

[Flex]

Connection, Stars, Central opt out Ascension League
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Top T&T Pro League con­tenders W Con­nec­tion, North East Stars, Cen­tral FC and Point Fortin Civic will not take part in this year’s in­au­gur­al As­cen­sion Foot­ball League, which is be­ing spon­sored by a for­eign com­pa­ny that sup­plies sports cloth­ing, gear and oth­er equip­ment.

The league is set to kick off this week­end (Ju­ly 12) and will fea­ture six pro league teams, name­ly San Juan Jabloteh, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed, Club San­do, Po­lice FC, De­fence Force and La Hor­quet­ta Rangers. They will be joined by six oth­er teams from the T&T Su­per League to com­plete the list of 12 com­peti­tors for Di­vi­sion One of the tour­na­ment.

FC San­ta Rosa, the 2018 Su­per League’s win­ner, Queen’s Park Crick­et Club (QPCC), Pris­ons Ser­vice FC, Cunu­pia FC, Guaya Unit­ed and Matu­ra Re-Unit­ed have been el­e­vat­ed to con­test Di­vi­sion One.

Con­tact­ed yes­ter­day, Con­nec­tion Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer (CEO) Re­nee John-Williams said her coach­es be­lieve the pre-sea­son tour­na­ment will not give them the type of prepa­ra­tion they re­quire ahead of the much-fan­cied T-League, which, be­cause of the in­volve­ment of UE­FA and FI­FA, will re­place the T&T Pro League as the coun­try’s tier 1 com­pe­ti­tion.

“Both Stu­art-Charles Fevri­er and Earl Jean made that de­ci­sion and I am very con­fi­dent in my tech­ni­cal team,” John-Williams said.

She not­ed the coach­es may al­so not want to risk in­juries in the tour­na­ment, so they pre­fer to pre­pare the play­ers in an­oth­er man­ner.

W Con­nec­tion has been the coun­try’s most suc­cess­ful foot­ball club, cop­ping half a dozen league ti­tles, along with four FA Cups, six First Cit­i­zens Cups, three CFU Club Cham­pi­onships and tro­phies in the Dig­i­cel Shield and Toy­ota Clas­sic, among oth­ers.

John-Williams said her club of­fi­cial­ly be­gan train­ing re­cent­ly, a month or so be­fore the un­of­fi­cial start of the T-League in Sep­tem­ber. It has been ru­moured that the south­ern club could not put to­geth­er a team due to fi­nan­cial rea­sons. Guardian Me­dia Sports learnt that many of Con­nec­tion’s play­ers have sought green­er pas­tures at La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, the team that ac­quired St Ann’s Rangers back in 2018.

John-Williams al­so ex­plained her team will, this year, fo­cus on play­er de­vel­op­ment.

The As­cen­sion League will pro­vide teams with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to cash in on a hand­some first prize of $250,000, plus an ap­pear­ance fee of $2,000 for each match, to be paid at the end of every month. The run­ner-up will re­ceive $125,000 and there will al­so be prizes for the top four teams. Teams par­tic­i­pat­ing in the league will not be re­quired to pay a reg­is­tra­tion fee, or­ga­niz­ers said yes­ter­day.

Yes­ter­day, North East Stars Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Di­rec­tor Michael Awai said his team re­fused to play in the tour­na­ment be­cause there is no se­cu­ri­ty for his play­ers.

“There are no con­tracts for play­ers and they are un­aware of the en­ti­ty that will be run­ning the tour­na­ment. If our play­ers are in­jured, then what hap­pens next?” Awai asked.

Mean­while, Garthorne Craig, chair­man of Point Fortin Civic, said his team missed the tour­na­ment’s reg­is­tra­tion dead­line date and so they will not be play­ing.

Di­vi­sion Two of the tour­na­ment will al­so com­prise 12 teams from the Su­per League. Like the Di­vi­sion One, it will fea­ture a hand­some prize struc­ture along with an ap­pear­ance fee of $1,000 per club for each match to be paid at the end of the month.

The league is set to be launched to­day at a press con­fer­ence at the Ho­tel Nor­mandie in St Ann’s.

[Flex]

$2.3M Ascension League to fix football.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

A whop­ping $2.3 mil­lion have been put out on the As­cen­sion Foot­ball League, to en­sure foot­ball in T&T gets back on track, cour­tesy an un­known Unit­ed States cloth­ing com­pa­ny that is de­sirous of en­ter­ing the Caribbean mar­ket.

The League is set to kick off on Fri­day with two match­es, one at the Ari­ma Velo­drome be­tween home team FC San­ta Rosa and Queen's Park CC from 8 pm, and an­oth­er at the Guayagua­yare Recre­ation Ground be­tween Guaya Unit­ed and Po­lice FC from 6 pm.

At a launch at Galery 1 of the Ho­tel Nor­mandie in St Ann's yes­ter­day, chief or­gan­is­er Richard Piper said As­cen­sion's in­put has been grand, and it ranges from prize monies to pay­ments for pro­mo­tion and tele­vi­sion cov­er­age, to in­sur­ance for play­ers, and pay­ment of all of­fi­cials.

As re­port­ed in the Guardian yes­ter­day, the League will be played in two di­vi­sions, each com­pris­ing 12 teams. Di­vi­sion I will fea­ture Guaya Unit­ed, Po­lice FC, FC San­ta Rosa, Queen's Park, Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, San Juan Jabloteh, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed, Prison Ser­vice FC, Matu­ra Re-Unit­ed, Club San­do, Cunu­pia FC and De­fence Force, all bat­tling for a win­ner's cheque of $250,000, as well as $125,000 and $75,000 for sec­ond and third, re­spec­tive­ly.

Di­vi­sion II com­pris­es Harlem Strik­ers, UTT, Moru­ga FC, Po­lice FC, Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed, Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre, RSSR FC, Bethel Unit­ed, Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths, San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants, Erin FC and De­porti­vo PF, is a com­bined team from the Point Fortin foot­ball com­pe­ti­tion held ear­li­er this year. They will be com­pet­ing for $100,000, $65,000 and $35,000 as the top three prizes.

Har­ford said as or­gan­is­ers they have tak­en out an in­sur­ance pol­i­cy which will cov­er play­ers for in­juries and death in the sum of $5,000 (in­jury) and $10,000 (death) to go to next of kin. The pol­i­cy will al­so cov­er team of­fi­cials.

He al­so lashed out at North East Stars Busi­ness De­vel­op­ment Di­rec­tor Michael Awai for claims there is no se­cu­ri­ty for play­ers, say­ing it is stan­dard pro­ce­dure in foot­ball that the home team is re­spon­si­ble for se­cu­ri­ty.

The league is set to be a one-round com­pe­ti­tion but could go for two rounds if monies promised to clubs by the gov­ern­ment for the com­ing T-League lat­er this year, does not come.

"The As­cen­sion League has its birth through this des­per­ate need as you are aware, the promised fund­ing from the gov­ern­ment has not yet ma­te­ri­alised to af­ford the start of the TT Pro League sea­son, and the ex­pect­ed funds from the FI­FA, has al­so not yet ma­te­ri­alised, so we have reached out to the As­cen­sion peo­ple and they have ac­cept­ed," Har­ford said.

Richard Piper, the tour­na­ment di­rec­tor said, "The tour­na­ment will mir­ror the op­er­a­tions of the T-League when it gets start­ed. As part of the sanc­tion of the TTFA we had to have an in­dem­ni­ty clause that says they are not go­ing to be re­spon­si­ble for any­thing per­tain­ing to this tour­na­ment, and we gave them the as­sur­ance that this will not hap­pen."

Ac­cord­ing to Piper, an­oth­er in­no­v­a­tive as­pect of the tour­na­ment is that there is no reg­is­tra­tion fee. Teams will al­so re­ceive ap­pear­ance fees of $2,000 for Di­vi­sion I and $1,000 for Di­vi­sion II for each match, and Flow will pro­vide tele­vi­sion cov­er­age of match­es which will be aired as a pack­age on any giv­en day in the week.

Mean­while, Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers, which has spent in ex­cess of $5 mil­lion to up­grade its fa­cil­i­ty at Phase Two La Hor­quet­ta, has re­quest­ed that its match­es played there.

RELATED NEWS

$2.3m for football tournament.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

BOOTS of local footballers will no longer be collecting dust as $2.3 million will be pumped into the Ascension Invitational Tournament that will kick off tomorrow featuring 24 teams.

Pro League and Super League teams will be involved in the league with 12 teams playing in division one along with the same number of teams in division two. The announcement was made at The Hotel Normandie in St Ann’s, yesterday. No football has been held locally since December 2018.

Ascension is a group of business people using the league as a test for a new line of sporting apparel, which will be introduced to T&T and the Caribbean later this year.

The tournament will be played in a round robin format from tomorrow until September 21.

Two matches will be held tomorrow in division one with Guaya Utd playing Police FC, at Guaya Recreation Ground, from 4 pm and FC Santa Rosa FC battling QPCC, at Arima Velodrome, from 8 pm.

The division one winners will walk away with $250,000, second place will get $125,000 and the third place finishers will cop $75,000. In division two, the champions will be $100,000 richer, the runner up will earn $65,000 and the third place finishers will get $35,000. An appearance fee of $2,000 would be given to each team for each game that they play in division one and $1,000 in division two.

The teams competing in division one will be Guaya United FC, Police FC, FC Santa Rosa, QPCC, Terminix La Horquetta Rangers FC, San Juan Jabloteh, Caledonia AIA, Prison Service FC, Matura Reunited FC, Club Sando FC, Cunupia FC and Defence Force FC.

Lining up in division two will be Deportivo PF, Harlem Strikers, UTT, Moruga FC, Police FC, Petit Valley/Diego Martin Utd, Marabella Family Crisis Centre, RSSR FC, Bethel Utd, Club Sando Uprising Youths, San Fernando Giants and Erin FC.

W Connection, Central FC and North East Stars are the notable clubs that are not competing in the league.

A 30-minute television programme will be produced which delivers highlights of the tournament every week that will be aired on Flow and as such the tournament would be used to expose T&T football internationally.

The tournament director is Richard Piper and marketing director of All Sports Promotions Anthony Harford, said his company has helped with registration and other administrative matters in the league.

The tournament is sanctioned by the TT Football Association.

Ascension Invitational Tournament

Division One - Round One fixtures

(Fri 12 Jul)

Guaya Utd v Police FC, 6pm, Guaya Recreation Ground;
FC Santa Rosa v QPCC, 8pm, Arima Velodrome;

(Sat 13 Jul)

Morvant Caledonia Utd v Prison Services, 6pm, Hasely Crawford Stadium training ground;
Matura Re-United v Club Sando, 4pm, Matura Recreation Ground;

(Sun 14 Jul)

Cunupia FC v Defence Force FC, 3.30pm, Larry Gomes Stadium.

Videos

Wired868TV: Play Ascension football tournament

SPORT: Ascension Football League Kicks Off On Friday

[asylumseeker]

How could a company that is desirous of entering a market be positioned as "unknown"? Really?

[Flex]

How could a company that is desirous of entering a market be positioned as "unknown"? Really?

 

Only in T&T... maybe Jack Warner sponsored it.....

[maxg]

How could a company that is desirous of entering a market be positioned as "unknown"? Really?

 

Only in T&T... maybe Jack Warner sponsored it.....

When time to pay the bills, everybody will be hoping some unknown entity steps-up.. that is transparency in action, so transparent, almost invisible..     laawwd

[soccerman]

How could a company that is desirous of entering a market be positioned as "unknown"? Really?

 

Only in T&T... maybe Jack Warner sponsored it.....

When time to pay the bills, everybody will be hoping some unknown entity steps-up.. that is transparency in action, so transparent, almost invisible..     laawwd

[Flex]

Cunupia coach welcomes new competition.
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

MICHAEL DE Four, coach of Cunupia FC, is welcoming the Ascension Invitational Tournament, featuring 24 local club teams in two Divisions (with 12 teams each).

The tournament will kick off today and run until September 21, with each division playing six games a week.

AscensionBrand, the title sponsors, have injected approximately $2.3 million towards this 11-week event.

AscensionBrand, according to their website, is a motivational clothing brand created in the city of Baltimore, Maryland by entrepreneur Benjamin Parks. And this tournament is being used to launch the brand, which will be promoted, not only in TT but the rest of the Caribbean. Cunupia FC, who will compete in Division One, will face Defence Force at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima on Sunday, from 3.30 pm. De Four was asked yesterday how it feels for the team to get back on the field of play, after winning the 2018 Super League’s League Cup.

“(It is) greatly appreciated by the administrators of (Cunupia’s) board that we could get back on track,” De Four responded. De Four said his team has been ready to compete since June, in either the T League (which is yet to be confirmed) or the Super League.

“We were prepared to play in the Super League on the opening, on or around the middle of June,” De Four said. “We were preparing for the Super League which always starts on time, since we’ve been in the League, over the last three years. Our preparations were on time. We were just delayed and given a little more time to prepare.”

Cunupia FC will have a new-look team this year with a number of young players on their roster, as well as the experienced crop of ace striker Kevon “Showtime” Woodley, Michael Yaw Darko, Hakeem Legall, Stephen Julien and the Meloney brothers Gerald and Kristian. De Four said, “Every year we continue to evolve and look for new players. It hasn’t changed. We have a bunch of new players coming up, wanting to make the cut. Since this is a pre-season tournament, we’ll see how they stand up.”

Weekend’s Fixtures - (Match Day One)

Division One –

Today:

Guaya United vs Police, Guaya Recreation Ground, 6 pm; FC Santa Rosa vs Queen’s Park, Arima Velodrome, 8 pm.

Tomorrow: Matura ReUnited vs Club Sando, Matura Recreation Ground, 4 pm; Caledonia AIA vs Prison Service FC, Hasely Crawford Stadium Training Field, 6 pm.

Sunday:

Cunupia FC vs Defence Force, Larry Gomes Stadium, 3.30 pm.

Division Two –

Tomorrow:

Police FC vs Petit Valley/Diego Martin United, Police Academy, St James, 5 pm; UTT vs Moruga FC, UTT O’Meara, Arima, 6 pm; Deportivo Point Fortin vs Harlem Strikers, Mahaica Oval, 7 pm.

Sunday:

Marabella Family Crisis Centre vs RSSR FC, Manny Ramjohn Stadium Training Field; San Fernando Giants vs Erin FC, Union Hall, Marabella, 4 pm; Bethel United vs Club Sando Uprising Youths, Mt Gomery Recreation Ground, 6 pm.

[Flex]

Guaya Utd wins Ascension opener.
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Guaya Unit­ed FC got its first three points in the new As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League at the Guayagua­yare Recre­ation Ground on Fri­day, but T&T Su­per League cam­paign­ers FC San­ta Rosa and Queen’s Park CC both shared the points in a goal­less stale­mate at the Ari­ma Velo­drome.

The ‘Green Army’, as Guaya are af­fec­tion­ate­ly known, edged Po­lice FC 2-1 cour­tesy a goal on each side of the half by Ke­ston Fron­tin in the 10th minute and Shaquille Fer­ri­er in the 65th.

Fron­tin drew first blood with his item, ben­e­fit­ting from a neat­ly de­liv­ered right side cross on the doorstep that gave him the sim­ple task of tap­ping in from the goal line. But Chris­t­ian Thomas lev­elled the scores with a 21st-minute goal that re­turned their fo­cus on the $250,000 win­ner’s cheque dan­gling in front of their eyes.

How­ev­er, Fer­ri­er, a sur­vivor of Guaya’s win­ning Su­per League team back in 2017, spoiled their par­ty. The speedy winger ap­peared to have lost out when an­oth­er right-side cross, di­rect­ed to him, was in­ter­cept­ed by a tow­er­ing Po­lice de­fence. Fer­ri­er though was quick to rob the de­fence of the loose ball and with the goal well in his sight, he fired pow­er­ful­ly past the Po­lice goal­keep­er for a win­ner for the Travis Mul­raine-coach team.

At the Ari­ma Velo­drome, na­tion­al coach Den­nis Lawrence took a front-seat view for the en­counter and he was al­most lift­ed off his seat when San­ta Rosa’s ear­ly dom­i­nance cul­mi­nat­ed with a nice­ly float­ed left-side cross to an un­marked Rashad Grif­fith in the area. How­ev­er, Grif­fith, one of the team’s lead­ing scor­ers in the past few years, put his head­er wide of the tar­get.

Grif­fith was again the point-man for an­oth­er juicy chance for his team in a half that was large­ly dom­i­nat­ed by the San­ta Rosa’s Big Can­nons, al­though the Parkites did make their way in­to the de­fen­sive area but cause lit­tle re­al dan­ger.

In the 37th minute, Kheelon Mitchell re­leased him­self from a tight-mark­ing Dion Lewis on the right flank and cen­tred for Grif­fith, who, for a sec­ond time, failed to di­rect his head­er on tar­get be­fore the half-time in­ter­val.

Af­ter the re­sump­tion, the Parkites cre­at­ed more op­por­tu­ni­ties but could not beat Jesse Pe­ters in the San­ta Rosa goal.

Ri­car­do John al­so shot wide of the goal when he found him­self free in the area in the 49th minute. And against the run of play a minute lat­er, Juaval Roberts stormed down the right flank and cen­tred for Em­manuel Bunting to turn nice­ly in­side the box. But with the goal at his mer­cy, he fired wide of the far post with the San­ta Rosa cus­to­di­an in no man’s land.

The Big Can­nons turned to John-Paul Rochford to save their for­tunes but they were first re­duced to 10 men be­fore he could have any say in the match. The Parkites’ Lewis, sent freely on his way to goal, was hacked down by Al­fie James in the 71st minute and he was giv­en march­ing or­ders by the ref­er­ee. But the re­sult­ing free-kick was squan­dered.

Four min­utes from the end, how­ev­er, San­ta Rosa was giv­en a penal­ty when Rochford was again brought down in­side the area when put through by Kevon Corn­wall. But the lit­tle mid­field­er picked him­self up and drove his at­tempt from the spot straight to the Parkites goalie for a share of the points.

[Deeks]

Any homies went to any of these games

[Flex]

Jorsling, Mc Intyre give Army winning start.
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

For­mer na­tion­al strik­er, De­vorn Jorsling and Jerome Mc In­tyre were both on tar­get to lead De­fence Force to a 2-0 de­feat of Cunu­pia FC in their open­ing match of the $2.3 mil­li­on As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League Di­vi­sion One on Sun­day.

Jorsling, the all-time lead­ing scor­er of the now-de­funct T&T Pro League with more than 150 goals to his name, opened the scor­ing in the 31st minute for a 1-0 half-time ad­van­tage at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, be­fore Mc In­tyre sealed all three points for the vis­i­tors in the 73rd.

With the win, De­fence Force joined Guaya Unit­ed, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA Unit­ed and Club San­do FC at the top of the ta­ble with three points each.

In Di­vi­sion Two, RSSR FC trounced hosts Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis cen­tre 3-0 at the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Train­ing Field, Mara­bel­la on Sun­day led by a first-half brace from Jovon Vin­cent.

Vin­cent fired in the go-ahead item as ear­ly as the third minute and got his sec­ond in the 38th af­ter for­mer na­tion­al youth play­er Mic­ah Lan­siquot made it 2-0 in the 30th.

There were two oth­er Di­vi­sion Two match­es, with Bethel Unit­ed be­ing held to a 2-2 draw by vis­it­ing Club San­do Up­ris­ing at Mt Gomery Recre­ation Ground, while San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants and Erin FC drew goal­less at Union Hall Ground, Mara­bel­la. Match­es will be re­sume on Fri­day.

RE­SULTS

Di­vi­sion One

From Fri­day

Guaya Unit­ed 2 (Ke­ston Fron­tin 10th, Shaque­lle Fer­ri­er 65th) vs Po­lice FC 1 (Chris­t­ian Thomas 21st)

FC San­ta Rosa 0 vs QPCC 0

From Sat­ur­day

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA 4 (Re­nal­do Fran­cois 10th, 40th, Shem Clazel 34th, John­ny Brit­to 65th) vs Prison Ser­vice 2 (Akeem Bid­dy-Bai­ley 57th, Ri­car­do Al­leyne 88th)

Club San­do 6 (Trevin Cae­sar 37th, 49th, 74th, Keron Corn­wall 50th, Aki­no­la Gre­go­ry 65th, Neon Lam­my 71st) vs Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed FC 0

From Sun­day

De­fence Force 2 (De­vorn Jorsling 31st, Jerome Mc In­tyre 73rd) vs Cunu­pia FC 0

Di­vi­sion Two

From Sat­ur­day

De­porti­vo P.F 7 (Mar­cus Joseph 4th, 38th, 41st, Hugh­tun Hec­tor 18th, An­drei Pacheco 48th, Kevin Mood­ie 88th, 93rd) vs Harlem Strik­ers 0

UTT 4 (Theon James 16th, Dil­lon Bartholomew 83rd, 87th, Kishun Seecha­ran 85th) vs Moru­ga FC 2 (Nigel John 39th, Aaron Rod­ney 71st)

Po­lice FC 2 (Don­avon Der­rick 40th, Ja­mal Burke 42nd) vs Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed 1 (Akeil Thomas 53rd)

From Sun­day

RSSR FC 3 (Jovon Vincet 3rd, 38th, Mic­ah Lan­siquot 30th) vs Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre 0

Bethel Unit­ed 2 (Shaquille Cox 49th, Ker­ri Mc Don­ald 53rd) vs Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths 2 (Kyle Ce­les­tine 38th, Jabari Mitchell 42nd)

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants 0 vs Erin FC 0

Up­com­ing match­es

Di­vi­sion One

On Fri­day

FC San­ta Rosa vs Cunu­pia FC, Ari­ma Mu­nic­i­pal Sta­di­um, Ari­ma, 8pm

On Sat­ur­day

De­fence Force vs Prison Ser­vice FC, De­fence Force Head­quar­ters, Ch­aguara­mas, 3.30pm

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA vs Club San­do FC, Venue TBC

Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed vs Guaya Unit­ed, Matu­ra Rec. Grd, 4pm

On Sun­day

San Juan Jabloteh vs Po­lice FC, San Juan North Sec­ondary, Bourg Mu­la­tresse, San Juan, 4pm.

Di­vi­sion Two

On Sat­ur­day

Moru­ga FC vs Bethel Unit­ed, Grand Chemin Rce. Grd, Moru­ga, 4pm

Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths vs RSSR FC, Guapo Rec. Grd, 6.30pm

On Sun­day

Harlem Strik­ers vs Erin FC, Fred­er­ick Set­tle­men Grd, Ca­roni, 5.30pm

Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly C.Ce vs De­porti­vo P.F, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Train­ing Field, Mara­bel­la, 4pm

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants vs Po­lice FC, Union Hall Ground, Mara­bel­la, 4pm

Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed vs UTT, St An­tho­ny's Col­lege Grd, West­moor­ings, 4pm

RELATED NEWS

Jorsling, McIntyre goals give Defence Force winning start
By Joel Bailey (Newsday).

DEFENCE FORCE made a winning start to the 2019 Ascension Invitational Tournament, on Sunday, with a 2-0 win over Cunupia FC, in a Division One fixture, at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Arima.

Evergreen striker Devorn Jorsling and Jerome McIntyre scored in either half as the Army-Coast Guard combination thwarted the challenge of their combative opponents.

Jorsling, who looked heavier than he has been throughout his distinguished local playing career, showed that he has lost little of his scoring touch when he found the back of the net in the 31st minute.

Winger Jelani Felix made a run down the left and sent a low cross which was missed by captain Jerwyn Balthazar. But Jorsling was on hand to slot home the loose ball, from a few metres out.

Six minutes later, Cunupia had a good chance to equalise, as Hakeem Legall intercepted a poor pass from Jules Lee and his shot went wide of the mark. Jorsling could have doubled his account in the 59th, with a trademark left-footed freekick which crashed off the crossbar with goalkeeper Cleon John beaten.

Right-back McIntyre, who required medical attention after a pair of head injuries, redeemed himself to net Defence Force’s second goal, in the 73rd.

Felix sent in a corner from the right which was headed onto the crossbar by Balthazar, but McIntyre headed the rebound into the open net.Defence Force’s goalie Aaron Enill produced a pair of saves to deny skipper Kevon “Showtime” Woodley and Mikheil Peters, following a Legall freekick, in the 75th.

And Enill came up trumps again, in the 81st, as he dived to his right to save a penalty from Woodley, after the TT Beach Soccer striker was bundled over in the box by defender Justin Garcia. This game was one of four which took place on Sunday.

The match between Erin FC and the San Fernando Giants ended in a goalless draw at the Union Hall Ground in Marabella.

Match three was one crisis that Marabella Family Crisis Centre couldn’t prevent, losing 3-0 to RSSR FC. Jovon Vincent was just one short of his hat-trick, with teammate Micah Lansiquot netting the third.

The final match ended in a 2-2 draw between Bethel United and Club Sando Uprising Youths. Kyle Celestine and Jabari Mitchell secured goals for Uprising, and Shaquille Cox and Kerri Mc Donald for United.

Five matches were held on Saturday. Playing in Division One were Caledonia AIA who secured a 4-2 win over Prison Service FC at the YTC grounds in Arouca. Caledonia got two goals from Renaldo Francois, and teammates Shem Clauzel and Johnny Brito scoring one each.

The evening ended in disappointment for Matura Re-United who failed to find the back of the net on their home ground as Club Sando earned a lopsided 6-0 victory. National forward Trevin Caesar, who played for Kosovan club SC Gjilani last season, scored a hat-trick while Keron Cornwall, Akinola Gregory, Neon Lammy also added their name to the scoresheet at the Matura Recreational Ground.

Police FC (Super League) faced Petit Valley/Diego Martin United at Police Academy, St James, and prevailed 2-1 with first half goals from Donavon Derrick and Jamal Burke. United tried to make a comeback as Akeil Thomas copped a goal in the 53rd minute but Police held firm till the final whistle.

Meanwhile, at the UTT grounds in O’Meara, Arima, UTT defeated Moruga FC 4-2. UTT’s Theon James started it off with a goal in the 16th minute. Nigel John and Aaron Rodney netted for Moruga FC in the second half but UTT responded with a second from James and strikes from Dillon Bartholomew and Kishun Seecharan.

Deportivo Point Fortin (PF) crushed Harlem Strikers 7-0 at the Mahaica Oval in Point Fortin, with a treble from TT forward Marcus “Lobo” Joseph, two from Kevon Moodie and one apiece from Hughtun Hector and Andrei Pacheco.

On Friday, Guaya United edged Police (Pro League) 2-1 at the Guayaguayare Recreation Ground while FC Santa Rosa were held to a goalless draw by Queen’s Park at the Arima Velodrome. The tournament will continue this weekend.

Deportivo PF demolish Harlem Strikers 7-0
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

CARONI’S Harlem Strikers suffered a humiliating 7-0 defeat against Deportivo Point Fortin (PF),on Saturday evening, at the Mahaica Oval, in Point Fortin.

Both teams are in division two of the 2019 Ascension Invitational tournament, which began on Friday.

Deportivo PF wasted no time as forward Marcus “Lobo” Joseph, who now plays for Indian club Gokulam Kerala FC, secured a goal in the 4th minute. Captain Hughton Hector also added his name to the scoresheet soon after in the 11th minute.

The Strikers defenders continued to struggle with clearing the ball as Joseph cruised past them to secure a hat trick in the first half with goals in the 38th and 41st minutes and Andrei Pacheco netting another just after.

Strikers fans were visibly frustrated as they looked on during the second half, hoping their team could secure a goal before the final minute. But Deportivo PF continued their streak with two strikes from Rehad Moodie, with the match ending in disappointment for the Strikers.

Speaking with Newsday, goal scorer Marcus Joseph said he believes the downfall of the Strikers was that they did not play as a unit, adding that he was elated to secure a hat trick for his team.

“The game was a pretty good game, it was very nice for our first game. It’s always great to get goals and we played as a team,” Joseph said.

Strikers captain Ita Charles, who was unable to play due to injury, told Newsday, “We could have improvised to the situation because everything was against us. The other team was better, they came out firing, close to the ball. What we need to do is regroup and move forward.”

[Flex]

St Hillaire fires Jabloteh past Police.
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

Na­tion­al strik­er Kathon St Hillaire scored a goal in each half to fire San Juan Jabloteh to a com­fort­able 3-1 de­feat of Po­lice FC when match­es in Di­vi­sion One of the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball Tour­na­ment con­tin­ued on Sun­day.

St Hillaire opened the scor­ing as ear­ly as the fourth minute at the San Juan North Sec­ondary School Ground, Bourg Mu­la­tresse, San Juan which his team took in­to the half-time in­ter­val.

Ke­shawn Hamil­ton made it 2-0 to Jabloteh in the 62nd minute, but five min­utes lat­er, Ka­reem Fre­itas pulled a goal back for the Law­men to set up an in­ter­est­ing fi­nal 23 min­utes.

How­ev­er, any hopes of Po­lice steal­ing a point were dashed in the 83rd when St Hillaire notched his sec­ond of the match to seal all three points for Jabloteh, their first in their open­ing match of the pre-sea­son com­pe­ti­tion and lev­el with Club San­do FC and Cunu­pia FC.

At the top of the ta­ble though, are the trio of De­fence Force, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA Unit­ed and Guaya Unit­ed, all with six points each.

This af­ter Mor­vant Cale­do­nia edged Club San­do FC on a 69th-minute strike from John­ny Nor­eiga-Brit­to at Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la while Guaya Unit­ed al­so won by a sim­i­lar mar­gin at host Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed on Sat­ur­day and De­fence Force blanked Prison Ser­vice 3-0 led by a Re­on More dou­ble.

Adan Noel and for­mer na­tion­al mid­field­er An­drei Pacheco scored two goals each to lead free-scor­ing De­porti­vo P.F to an­oth­er em­phat­ic win, this time 6-0 over Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre in Di­vi­sion Two at Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Train­ing Field on Sun­day.

Noel got his goals in the ninth and 90th, the lat­ter a penal­ty while Pacheco was on tar­get in the 39th and 45th minute for a 3-0 half-time lead.

Ac­k­eel Ja­cob and Je­re­my Primus added sec­ond-half items in the 65th and 86th min­utes for De­porti­vo P.F, which was com­ing off a 7-0 beat­ing of Harlem Strik­ers.

Jo­ing De­porti­vo at the top with six points was RSSR FC af­ter its 1-0 vic­to­ry against Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths at Guapo Recre­ation Ground, Guapo on Sat­ur­day night cour­tesy Jovon Vin­cent.

In oth­er Di­vi­sion Two match­es, Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin squan­dered a 2-0 lead at the Diego Mar­tin Sta­di­um in a 2-all draw with Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T, San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants tram­pled Po­lice FC (Su­per League) 4-0 with Kerville Je­re­mi­ah scor­ing a late brace while Harlem Strik­ers got a win­ner in the ninth minute of time added in a 3-2 vic­to­ry over Erin FC at Fred­er­ick Set­tle­ment, Ca­roni.

Results

Di­vi­sion One:

Fri­day:

Cunu­pia FC 5 (Kevon Wood­ley 29th, 56th, Michael Darko 51st, 77th, Mikheil Pe­ters 54th) vs FC San­ta Rosa 2 (John-Paul Rochford 64th, 97th)

Sat­ur­day:

De­fence Force 3 (Re­on Moore 17th, 66th, De­vorn Jorsling 38th) vs Prison Ser­vice FC 0

Guaya Unit­ed 1 (Ker­wyn Navar­ro 3rd) vs Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed 0

Sun­day:

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed 1 (John­ny Nor­eiga-Brit­to - 69th) vs Club San­do FC 0

San Juan Jabloteh 3 (Kathon St Hillaire 4th, 83rd, Ke­shawn Hamil­ton 62nd) vs Po­lice FC 1 (Ka­reem Fre­itas 67th)

Di­vi­sion Two:

Sat­ur­day:

Moru­ga FC 0 vs Bethel Unit­ed 0

RSSR FC 1 (Jovon Vin­cent 18th) vs Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths 0

Sun­day:

Harlem Strik­ers 3 (Dez Jones o.g 29th, Keron Fox 44th, David Mal­oney 99th) vs Erin FC 2 (Aaron Am­brose o.g 18th, Is­rael Williams 37th)

De­porti­vo P.F 6 (Adan Noel 9th, 90th pen, An­drei Pacheco 39th, 45th, Ac­k­eel Ja­cob 65th, Je­re­my Primus 86th) vs Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre 0

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants 4 (Ko­ri Cu­pid 52nd, Kurlan Khan 64th, Kerville Je­re­mi­ah 81st, 84th) vs Po­lice FC 0

Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin 2 (Kaz­im Don­ald 42nd, 63rd) vs UTT 2 (Kishun Seecha­ran 80th, 92nd)

Cur­rent Stand­ings:

Di­vi­sion One:

Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*Pts
1. De­fence Force*2*2*0*0*5*0*6
2. Mor­vant Cale­do­nia*2*2*0*0*5*2*6
3. Guaya Unit­ed*2*2*0*0*3*1*6
4. Club San­do FC*2*1*0*1*6*1*3
5. Jabloteh*1*1*0*0*3*1*3
6. Cunu­pia FC*2*1*0*1*5*4*3
7. QPCC*1*0*1*0*0*0*1
8. San­ta Rosa*2*0*1*1*2*5*1
9. Ter­minix Rangers*0*0*0*0*0*0*0
10. Po­lice FC*2*0*0*2*2*5*0
11. Prison FC*2*0*0*2*2*7*0
12. Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed*2*0*0*2*0*7*0

Di­vi­sion Two:

Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*Pts
1. De­porti­vo P.F*2*2*0*0*13*0*6
2. RSSR FC*2*2*0*0*4*0*6
3. San F'do Gi­ants*2*1*1*0*4*0*4
4. UTT*2*1*1*0*6*4*4
5. Po­lice FC*2*1*0*1*2*5*3
6. Harlem Strik­ers*2*1*0*1*3*9*3
7. Bethel Unit­ed*2*0*2*0*2*2*2
8. P.V/D.M*2*0*1*1*3*4*1
9. Erin FC*2*0*1*1*2*3*1
10. Club San­do Up­ris­ing*2*0*1*1*2*3*1
11. Moru­ga FC*2*0*1*1*2*4*1
12. Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly CC*2*0*0*2*0*9*0

[ZANDOLIE]

So is this a new tiered league or a tournament?

[Deeks]

So is this a new tiered league or a tournament?

pre-season tournament.

[Flex]

Rd 2: Play Ascension Football 30 min show

[Deeks]

Rd 2: Play Ascension Football 30 min show

The game in the velodrome brought back fun memories for. had a couple of good games there. Football Jumbies of TT, please keep on supporting the game. Both Men and Women!!

[Deeks]

Those 2 goals by Rochford were absolutely fantastic!

[asylumseeker]

Those 2 goals by Rochford were absolutely fantastic!

Yes, but why is he in T&T playing in this tournament?!

[Deeks]

Those 2 goals by Rochford were absolutely fantastic!

Yes, but why is he in T&T playing in this tournament?!

What other option is there for him?

[Tallman]

Those 2 goals by Rochford were absolutely fantastic!

Yes, but why is he in T&T playing in this tournament?!

Well at least he just get call up for national team training.

[asylumseeker]

Those 2 goals by Rochford were absolutely fantastic!

Yes, but why is he in T&T playing in this tournament?!

What other option is there for him?

Made an impression and making strides.

[asylumseeker]

Those 2 goals by Rochford were absolutely fantastic!

Yes, but why is he in T&T playing in this tournament?!

Well at least he just get call up for national team training.

[Flex]

Army guns down Guaya for lead
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

De­fence Force got a goal on both sides of the half from De­vorn Jorsling and Je­lani Fe­lix to pro­pel them to the top of the Di­vi­sion 1 stand­ings in the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League on Sun­day.

At the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um in Mal­abar, Ari­ma, the Army Coast-Guard com­bi­na­tion unit found them­selves in a bat­tle for the top po­si­tion against a plucky team that quick­ly earned the name Green Army fol­low­ing their achieve­ments in the T&T Su­per League.

How­ev­er, the De­fence Force drew first blood when in­stru­men­tal strik­er Jorsling found the net a minute be­fore the half-time in­ter­val.

And de­spite on­go­ing ef­forts for an equalis­er by the Guayagua­yare men, it was the De­fence Force who sealed the win in the 81st minute through Fe­lix.

The re­sult as­sured them an un­blem­ished record af­ter three match­es, sit­ting on nine points.

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed are al­so un­beat­en in the tour­na­ment, a record that was con­firmed by a 2-1 win away to San Juan ­Jabloteh at the San ­Juan Sec­ondary North Grounds on Sun­day.

John­ny Nor­eiga-Brit­to and Quin­cy Bal­lah pushed the Mor­vant-based team com­fort­ably in front 2-0 af­ter goals in 35th and 55th min­utes re­spec­tive­ly. And they se­cured the win at the end, de­spite the 81st-minute strike by Shaquille John.

In oth­er games, Matu­ra Re-Unit­ed were held to a 2-2 tie by Queen's Park CC and FC San­ta Rosa re­ceived their first win of the League by virtue of edg­ing Prison Ser­vice 2-1.

In an­oth­er game, Cunu­pia FC shut-out Club San­do 2-0.

In Di­vi­sion Two, sixth-placed Bethel Unit­ed FC got a goal each from Makan His­lop 58th and Shaquille Cox 85th to turn back Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre 2-1.

RE­SULTS

De­fence Force FC 2 (De­vorn Jorsling 44th, Je­lani Fe­lix 81st) v Guaya Unit­ed FC 0

Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA 2 (John­ny Nor­eiga-Brito 35th, Quin­cy Bal­lah 55th) v San Juan Jabloteh 1 (Shaquille John 89th)

QPCC 2 (Ri­car­do John 1st & 3rd) v Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed FC 2 (Car­lon Hugh­es 23rd, Mau­rice Dick 42nd)

Cunu­pia FC 2 (Kevon Wood­ley 13th & 23rd) v Club San­do FC 0

FC San­ta Rosa 2 (John-Paul Rochford 84th, Noel Williams 88th) v Prison Ser­vice FC 1 (Nathan Julien 52nd)

RE­SULTS DIV 2

Bethel Unit­ed FC 2 (Makan His­lop 58th, Shaquille Cox 85th) v Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre 1 (Ray­on Al­leyne 47th)

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants 1 (Kerville Je­re­mi­ah 79th) v Petit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed 0

RSSR FC 0 v Harlem Strik­ers 0

LAT­EST STAND­INGS

TEAMS*P*W*D*L*F*A*GD*PTS
1.De­fence Force FC*3*3*0*0*7*0*7*9
2.Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA*3*3*0*0*7*3*4*9
3.Cunu­pia FC*3*2*0*1*7*4*3*6
4.Guaya Unit­ed F.C*3*2*0*1*3*3*0*6
5.FC San­ta Rosa*3*1*1*1*4*6*-2*4
6.Club San­do F.C*3*1*0*2*6*3*3*3
7.San Juan Jabloteh*2*1*0*1*4*3*1*3
8.QPCC*2*0*2*0*2*2*0*2
9.Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed F.C*3*0*1*2*2*9*-7*1
10.La Hor­quet­ta Rangers FC*0*0*0*0*0*0*0*0
11.Po­lice FC*2*0*0*2*2*5*-3*0
12.Prison Ser­vice FC*3*0*0*3*3*9*-6*0

RELATED NEWS

Defence Force, Deportivo Point Fortin stay top
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

DEFENCE Force and Deportivo Point Fortin continued their winning streaks over the weekend to maintain the top spots in the 2019 Ascension Invitational Football Tournament.

Defence Force are at the top of Division One, with Morvant Caledonia AIA just below with a three-goal difference, while Deportivo Point Fortin lead Division Two.

Defence Force defeated Guaya United 2-0 at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar on Sunday, with a goal from Dervon Josling in the 44th minute and another from Jelani Felix in the 81st. Guaya dropped to fourth in Division One.

On Saturday, Deportivo Point Fortin demolished Erin FC 7-2 in their Division Two match at the Mahaica Oval in Point Fortin. Deportivo's Andrei Pacheco, the second top goal-scorer of the division, started it off with a goal in the fourth minute, with teammate Judah Garcia adding his name to the scoresheet in the 12th minute.

Erin FC's Jason Gross responded to make it 2-1, but was silenced by yet another goal by Deportivo Point Fortin as Garcia found the back of the net once more.

Garcia copped a third, earning a hat-trick, while Pacheco was just one short with his final goal in the 42nd minute. Erin FC managed to get one more goal thanks to Israel Williams.

League action continues this weekend.

Weekend Results:

DIVISION ONE -

Sunday -

DEFENCE FORCE FC 2 vs GUAYA UNITED FC 0

SAN JUAN JABLOTEH 1 vs MORVANT CALEDONIA AIA 2

QUEEN'S PARK 2 vs MATURA RE-UNITED 2

CLUB SANDO FC 0 vs CUNUPIA FC 2

PRISON SERVICE FC 1 vs FC SANTA ROSA 2

DIVISION TWO -

Saturday -

POLICE FC 1 vs MORUGA FC 0

UTT 2 vs CLUB SANDO - 2

DEPORTIVO POINT FORTIN 7 vs ERIN FC 2

Sunday -

BETHEL UNITED 2 vs MARABELLA FAMILY CRISIS CENTRE 1

PETIT VALLEY/DIEGO MARTIN UNITED 0 vs SAN FERNANDO GIANTS 1

RSSR FC 0, HARLEM STRIKERS 0

[Flex]

Rangers FC opens $5M facility Aug 10
By Walter Alibey (Guardian).

Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers' open­ing match of the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball League will take place on Au­gust 10 with much fan­fare at its spank­ing new fa­cil­i­ty at Phase Two, La Hor­quet­ta, Ari­ma.

Af­ter more than $5 mil­lion spent to date, the once di­lap­i­dat­ed pavil­ion sit­u­at­ed be­hind the La Hor­quet­ta Po­lice Sta­tion, has been trans­formed in­to a se­mi state-of-the-art fa­cil­i­ty, com­pris­ing a mi­ni restau­rant, an ex­tend­ed seat­ing ca­pac­i­ty that mea­sures 120 x 50 feet, com­men­tary booths, four dress­ing rooms and toi­lets, wa­ter tanks with pumps, laser-turf ground and a fa­cil­i­ty that has been to­tal­ly fenced.

On Wednes­day, the di­rec­tor at La Hor­quet­ta Rangers Richard Fer­gu­son said a to­tal of $450, 000 was spent on the ground alone, and an­oth­er $435, 000 on light­ing fa­cil­i­ties. The key he said is to bring foot­ball back to the com­mu­ni­ty, which will even­tu­al­ly lead to more sup­port for the sport and a bet­ter pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball League in the fu­ture.

La Hor­quet­ta Rangers is the on­ly team in the new As­cen­sion League that is yet to play its first match. But ac­cord­ing to Fer­gu­son, next week's open­ing match is set to pro­vide fans with a show of cul­ture and foot­ball.

In ad­di­tion to their en­counter with Matu­ra Re-Unit­ed, fans will be treat­ed to live per­for­mances from so­ca artistes Blaxx, Or­lan­do Oc­tave and Isas­ha, all for $40. And there will al­so be food and drink from a well-stocked restau­rant.

Fer­gu­son not­ed his club has gone the ex­tra mile in at­tempt­ing to re­turn foot­ball to the glo­ry days. "When you mix the foot­ball with the T&T cul­ture, you will get the sup­port of the fans, as it is what T&T peo­ple can iden­ti­fy with. More sup­port will lead to an im­prove­ment in the qual­i­ty of the game, and even­tu­al­ly a pro­fes­sion­al sys­tem where play­ers will be paid, and the sport will not have to go cap-in-hand to the gov­ern­ment for fund­ing," Fer­gu­son ex­plained.

Fer­gu­son praised the spon­sors of the As­cen­sion League for pro­vid­ing play­ers with the op­por­tu­ni­ty to play the sport.

He ad­mit­ted his team has al­so strength­ened their force this sea­son by re­cruit­ing a few play­ers. He said, "In the past, Rangers has oc­cu­pied the bot­tom half of the ta­ble, but I think we will do bet­ter this year."

[soccerman]

Glad to see they're taking football back to the community and updated renovation of the home ground, I applaud that. Not say the La Horquetta community will not come out and support but Rangers home fans are from St. Anns. I wonder why the new owner couldn't do the same thing on St. Anns Ground? I remember the days when St. Anns grounds used to be packed with die hard Rangers fans for home games.

[Deeks]

Glad to see they're taking football back to the community and updated renovation of the home ground, I applaud that. Not say the La Horquetta community will not come out and support but Rangers home fans are from St. Anns. I wonder why the new owner couldn't do the same thing on St. Anns Ground? I remember the days when St. Anns grounds used to be packed with die hard Rangers fans for home games.

I thought St.Anns use to play on the old Governor General grounds behind Queens Hall. Is that still there? It is sad to see Rangers move, but the new owner made a decision which may work out or may not. We will see. Honestly, I hope it work out for him, the team and La Horquetta.

I honestly don't see why they authorities cant take 4 grounds in the QPS and fenced them around for these 4 team sports. One ground with a 4x400 track and turf field for football. One for Rugby. One for cricket.  One  for field hockey. I don't want to hear no nonsense that building structures will disgrace the Savannah. It already looking disgracefully with some of the structures there currently. We need, or POS need to bring people back to the Savannah. Teams from East POS eh have no proper grounds to play on.

But congrats to Ferguson on his efforts.

[asylumseeker]

Glad to see they're taking football back to the community and updated renovation of the home ground, I applaud that. Not say the La Horquetta community will not come out and support but Rangers home fans are from St. Anns. I wonder why the new owner couldn't do the same thing on St. Anns Ground? I remember the days when St. Anns grounds used to be packed with die hard Rangers fans for home games.

What number would you put on an active Rangers' fan base had the team not moved? 500? Less? More?

What about Morvant?

[Flex]

Police blasts Matura for first win.
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

Six dif­fer­ent play­ers found the tar­get as Po­lice FC crushed Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed FC 6-0 in Di­vi­sion One of the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Tour­na­ment at the St James Po­lice Acad­e­my, St James Po­lice Bar­racks on Sat­ur­day.

How­ev­er, it took the Law­men a while to open the scor­ing with Kay­dion Gabriel net­ting the open­er four min­utes from the half-time whis­tle.

A minute af­ter the re-start Ka­reem Fre­itas dou­bled the lead while Jameel Per­ry put the match be­yond doubt in the 53nd.

Keion Wil­son then con­vert­ed a penal­ty-kick in the 72nd fol­lowed by strikes from Adriel Kerr (74th) a­nd Joshua Leach (87th) to com­plete the drub­bing.

De­porti­vo makes it four in-a-row

Adan Noel scored a sec­ond-halfd dou­ble as De­porti­vo PF ham­mered Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths 7-0 for their fourth straight win from as many match­es in Di­vi­sion Two.

Noel found the tar­get in the 71st and 89th af­ter An­drei Pacheco (11th pen), Je­re­mi­ah Ke­sar (50th) and Ju­dah Gar­cia (56th) had net­ted for 3-0 lead at Guapo Recre­ation Ground.

Nathaniel Gar­cia made it 6-0 in the 73rd and Ezekiel Ke­sar round­ed off the scor­ing in the 90th to hand Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths, a sec­ond loss in four match­es.

The Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T (UTT) moved up to sec­ond with eight points thanks to a 3-0 de­feat of Po­lice FC at St James Po­lice Acad­e­my with a strike each from Kishun Seecha­ran (15th), Cyra­no Glen (51st) and Stevon Stoute (91st) while Moru­ga FC edged RSSR FC 1-0 cour­tesy a strike from Nigel John, two min­utes in­to time added on at the end of the first-half at Grand Chemin Recre­ation Ground.

Sat­ur­day Re­sults

Di­vi­sion One

Po­lice FC 6 (Kay­dion Gabriel 41st, Ka­reem Fre­itas 46th, Jameel Per­ry 52nd, Keion Wil­son 72nd pen, Adriel Kerr 74th, Joshua Leach 87th) vs Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed 0

Di­vi­sion Two

De­porti­vo P.F 7 (An­drei Pacheco 11th pen, Je­re­mi­ah Ke­sar 50th, Ju­dah Gar­cia 56th, Adan Noel 71st, 89th, Nathaniel Gar­cia 73rd, Ezekiel Ke­sar 90th) vs Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths 0

Moru­ga FC 1 (Nigel John 47th) vs RSSR FC 0

UTT 3 (Kishun Seecha­ran 15th, Cyra­no Glen 51st, Stevon Stoute 91st) vs Po­lice FC

RELATED NEWS

Deportivo Point Fortin trounce Club Sando Uprising.
By Narissa Fraser (Newsday).

DEPORTIVO Point Fortin increased their unbeaten run in the 2019 Ascension Invitational Tournament to four matches after hammering Club Sando Uprising Youths 7-0 at their home grounds in Gonzales Village, Point Fortin on Saturday evening. Deportivo now have an impressive total of 25 goals in the league.

It was a community rivalry as some players from both teams recently joined forces in the Community Football League (CFL) in April to represent the Guapo district of Point Fortin, and went on to win the league.

Deportivo made the Guapo Recreational Grounds their playground, dominating possession throughout the first half. They were awarded a penalty in the 11th minute which was effortlessly taken by the Division Two top goalscorer Andrei Pacheco to put the visitors 1-0 up.

The action became more intense in the second half as Uprising players and coaches alike were visibly frustrated, missing crucial chances to find the back of the net and displaying a lack of cohesion. Jeremiah Kesar put Deportivo 2-0 up just five minutes after the second half kicked off, and a bullet from Judah Garcia in the 56th minute made it 3-0.

The Uprising defence continued to struggle, conceding two goals in two minutes by Adan Noel in the 71st and Nathaniel Garcia in the 73rd. Noel added his name to the scoresheet once more in the 88th, and Ezekiel Kesar finished it off with a power strike in the final minute of regulation time.

Speaking with Newsday, Deportivo PF captain Hughton Hector said his team took advantage of all their chances, adding that a lack of organisation was Uprising’s downfall.

“They didn’t have that structure of how and when to go forward and to keep the ball and how to play it back around. I think it had too much individual playing and we counter-attacked on that and came out with the victory,” Hector said.

Coach Reynold Carrington told Newsday the team is aiming to upkeep its unbeaten run.

He said, “I think it was a good game, it was a good community rivalry between two teams with a lot of quality but we came out on top today and we are grateful for the three points. I think the quality of our players showed today and in the final third, we took our chances and played with a lot of discipline.”

Other Results –

Division One –

At Police Academy, St James: POLICE (Pro League) (6) - Jameel Perry 40th, 52nd; Kareem Freitas 46th; Kurdell Brathwaite 72nd; Adriel Kerr 73rd; Joshua Leach 87th vs MATURA REUNITED (0).

Division Two –

At Grand Chemin Recreation Ground: MORUGA FC (1) - Nigel John 45th vs RSSR FC (0).

At Police Academy, St James: UTT (3) - Kishun Seecharan 15th; Cyrano Glen 51st, Stevon Stoute 90th vs POLICE (Super League) (0).

[Flex]

Jorsling fires Army to 4th win.
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

For­mer na­tion­al strik­er, De­vorn Jorsling net­ted a first-half brace to lead De­fence Force to a 5-1 thump­ing of Queen's Park Crick­et Club for its fourth win in Di­vi­sion One of the As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Tour­na­ment at St Mary's Col­lege Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road, St Clair on Sun­day.

Cap­tain, Jer­wyn Balt­haz­ar opened the scor­ing for the "Teteron Men" in the 16th minute, while Aaron Lester made it 2-0 in the 29th, on­ly for Em­manuel Bunting to cut the deficit in half, three min­utes be­fore the in­ter­val.

How­ev­er, Jorsling, the all-time lead­ing scor­er in the T&T Pro League with 150-plus goals, would change the com­plex­ion of the con­test just be­fore the break when he ex­tend­ed his team lead in the 44th and then added an­oth­er with sec­onds of the restart for a 4-1 half-time lead and up­ping his league-best tal­ly to five, one ahead of Cunu­pia's Kevon 'Show­time' Wood­ley and FC San­ta Rosa's John-Paul Rochford.

In the sec­ond half, De­fence Force con­tin­ued to dom­i­nate, but on­ly added one more goal to their tal­ly cour­tesy Jerome Mc In­tyre in the 58th.

The win was the fourth from as many match­es for De­fence Force to lead the 12-team ta­ble with max­i­mum 12 points, three ahead of Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA who have a match in hand.

FC San­ta Rosa climbed to third af­ter com­ing from be­hind to beat Club San­do FC with Noel Williams, Gio­van­ni Abra­ham, Kevon Corn­wall and Rochford, all on tar­get af­ter Keron Bethelmy had giv­en the south­ern­ers a sec­ond-minute lead.

And in the day's oth­er en­counter, San Juan Jabloteh took full ad­van­tage of the ab­sence of Cunu­pia FC's main strik­er Wood­ley to come away with a 2-1 win.

De­spite Wood­ley's non­in­volve­ment, Cunu­pia still led ear­ly on through Domonique Roberts' 15th-minute strike.

But the 'San Juan Kings', still smart­ing from a 2-1 loss to Mor­vant Cale­do­nia a week ear­li­er, replied pos­i­tive­ly with Nical Stephens get­ting a 21st-minute equalis­er fol­lowed by Shaquille John's 25th-minute win­ner.

Gi­ants tram­ple Strik­ers in Di­vi­sion Two

Kerville Je­re­mi­ah and Jo­hannes Richard­son both scored two goals each to lead San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants to a com­fort­able 4-1 de­feat of Harlem Strik­ers to go sec­ond be­hind un­beat­en De­porti­vo P.F.

Je­re­mi­ah fired in the open­er in the 20th minute which his team took in­to the half-time in­ter­val.

Two min­utes in­to the sec­ond-half, Je­re­mi­ah made it 2-0 with his fifth goal of the sea­son, one be­hind De­porti­vo P.F's An­drei Pacheco, but Wen­dell Archibald replied for Strik­ers in the 53rd.

Richard­son then joined in on the scor­ing to re­store Gi­ants ad­van­tage to 3-1 in the 67th be­fore he added his sec­ond in the 81st to com­plete the scor­ing.

The vic­to­ry lift­ed Gi­ants to ten points from four match­es, two be­hind un­beat­en De­porti­vo PF who ham­mered Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths 7-0 for their fourth straight win from as many match­es on Sat­ur­day.

In the two oth­er Di­vi­sion match­es on Sun­day, Erin FC and Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed both picked up their first wins.

Erin FC got a dou­ble from Jardel Sin­clair to edge Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre 3-2 and Kieon Melville lone item was enough for Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin to get over Bethel Unit­ed.

Re­sults

Sun­day, Au­gust 4

Di­vi­sion One

De­fence Force 5 (Jer­wyn Balt­haz­ar 16th, Aaron Lester 29th, De­vorn Jorsling 44th, 46th, Jerome Mc In­tyre 58th) vs QPCC 1 (Em­manuel Bunting 42nd)

San Juan Jabloteh 2 (Nical Stephens 21st, Shaquille John 25th) vs Cunu­pia FC 1 (Domonique Roberts 15th)

FC San­ta Rosa 4 (Noel Williams 26th, Gio­van­ni Abra­ham 57th, Kevon Corn­wall 80th, John-Paul Rochford 85th) vs Club San­do FC 1 (Keron Bethelmy 2nd)

Guaya Unit­ed vs Prison Ser­vice - did not play

On Sat­ur­day

Di­vi­sion One

Po­lice FC 6 (Kay­dion Gabriel 41st, Ka­reem Fre­itas 46th, Jameel Per­ry 52nd, Keion Wil­son 72nd pen, Adriel Kerr 74th, Joshua Leach 87th) vs Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed 0

On Sun­day

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants 4 (Kerville Je­re­mi­ah 20th, 47th, Jo­hannes Richard­son 67th, 81st) vs Harlem Strik­ers 1 (Wen­dell Archibald 53rd)

Erin FC 3 (Jardel Sin­clair 43rd, 67th, Shakuile Williams 58th) vs Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly C.C 2 (Dar­i­an Kennedy 26th, Rus­sell Orie 30th)

Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Utd 1 (Kieon Melville 80th) vs Bethel Unit­ed 0

Di­vi­sion Two

De­porti­vo PF 7 (An­drei Pacheco 11th pen, Je­re­mi­ah Ke­sar 50th, Ju­dah Gar­cia 56th, Adan Noel 71st, 89th, Nathaniel Gar­cia 73rd, Ezekiel Ke­sar 90th) vs Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths 0

Moru­ga FC 1 (Nigel John 47th) vs RSSR FC 0

UTT 3 (Kishun Seecha­ran 15th, Cyra­no Glen 51st, Stevon Stoute 91st) vs Po­lice FC

[Flex]

La Horquetta Rangers make Ascension bow
By Nigel Simon (Guardian).

All eyes will be fo­cussed on the La Hor­quet­ta Recre­ation Ground, Phase II, La Hor­quet­ta as Ter­minix La Hor­quet­ta Rangers will make their long-await­ed de­but in the $2.25 mil­lion As­cen­sion In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball Tour­na­ment Di­vi­sion One against Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed, from 6 pm on Sat­ur­day.

The Dave Quam­i­na-coached Rangers were due to kick off their cam­paign on Ju­ly 13 against San Juan Jabloteh, how­ev­er due to re­fur­bish­ment works which at the La Hor­quet­ta venue, a de­ci­sion was tak­en to post­poned all their match­es un­til works at a cost of $5 mil­lion were com­plet­ed, in­clu­sive of the up­grad­ing of the play­ing field, bleach­ers, chang­ing rooms, erect­ing of lights and fenc­ing, and food court ar­eas.

Hav­ing en­dured tough cam­paigns in the now-de­funct T&T Pro League over the past decade, Rangers was sold by the now-de­ceased Richard Fakoory in 2018 and the new man­age­ment team has in­vest­ed heav­i­ly in­to the club which be­gan train­ing since Jan­u­ary, with past and present na­tion­al ju­nior and se­nior team play­ers in­clu­sive of Leslie Joel Rus­sell, Jevon Mor­ris, Car­lyle Mitchell, Ty­rone Charles, Glen­roy Samuel, Hay­den Tin­to, Ross Rus­sell Jr, Kadeem Corbin, Kevon God­dard, Aikim An­drews, and Keron "Ball Pest" Cum­mings on its ros­ter.

Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed, on the oth­er hand, have played four match­es to date, and suf­fered de­feats in three of four match­es, 0-6 ver­sus both Club San­do FC and Po­lice FC, and 0-1 against Guaya Unit­ed, while they drew 2-2 draw with Queen's Park Crick­et Club, in the oth­er.

On Sun­day, Mor­vant Cale­do­nia Unit­ed will have a great chance to go top of the ta­ble on goal-dif­fer­ence from De­fence Force when they trav­el to St Mary's Col­lege Ground, Ser­pen­tine Road, St Clair for a meet­ing with Queen's Park Crick­et Club from 4 pm.

De­fence Force cur­rent­ly leads the ta­ble with max­i­mum 12 points, but their match ver­sus ri­vals San Juan Jabloteh has been resched­uled to Wednes­day, Au­gust 21, leav­ing the door open for Mor­vant Cale­do­nia, with max­i­mum nine points to go top.

The Parkites will en­ter the match a wound­ed bunch hav­ing suf­fered a 5-1 drub­bing at the same St Clair venue at the hands of the "Teteron Men" last time out.

At the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, third-placed FC San­ta Rosa, five points off the top faces a tough bat­tle against Po­lice FC while in oth­er Di­vi­sion One match­es, Guaya Unit­ed wel­comes Cunu­pia FC, and Club San­do FC and Prison Ser­vice FC face off.

<Free scor­ing De­porti­vo P.F eyes fifth straight win>

In Di­vi­son Two, un­beat­en lead­ers, De­porti­vo P.F will be con­fi­dent of pick­ing up a fifth straight win when they host Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin Unit­ed at Ma­haica Oval, Pt Fortin from 6 pm.

Led by the di­vi­sion's lead­ing scor­er An­drei Pacheco (six goals), and the trio of Ju­dah Gar­cia (four), Adan Noel (four) and for­mer In­dia-based strik­er Mar­cus Joseph (three), De­porti­vo P.F has rat­tled off im­pres­sive wins against Harlem Strik­ers (7-0), Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre (6-0), Erin FC (7-2) and Club San­do Up­ris­ing Youths (7-0) and will be con­fi­dent of an­oth­er big win against Pe­tit Val­ley/Diego Mar­tin, which are com­ing off their first win of the cam­paign, 1-0 at home to Bethel Unit­ed to join three oth­er clubs on four points in the low­er half of the 12-team stand­ings.

San Fer­nan­do Gi­ants, sec­ond on the stand­ings with ten points will al­so be keen to get full points at home to cel­lar-placed Mara­bel­la Fam­i­ly Cri­sis Cen­tre at Union Hall Ground, Cy­press Hills, San Fer­nan­do, to stay in touch with the lead­ers.

Else­where, third-placed Uni­ver­si­ty of T&T trav­els to Bethel Unit­ed at Mt Gomery, Erin FC en­ter­tains Moru­ga FC at Erin, RSSR FC and Po­lice FC clash at Long Cir­cu­lar, and Harlem Strik­ers and Up­ris­ing Youths meet at Fred­er­ick Set­tle­ment.

Up­com­ing Match­es

Di­vi­sion One

On Sat­ur­day

La Hor­quet­ta Rangers vs Matu­ra Re­Unit­ed, Phase II, La Hor­quet­ta Rec. Grd, 6 pm

On Sun­day

FC San­ta Rosa vs Po­lice FC, Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar, 4 pm

Guaya Unit­ed vs Cunu­pia FC, Guaya Rec. Grd, 6 pm

QPCC vs Mor­vant Cale­do­nia AIA, St Mary's Col­lege Grd, Ser­pen­tine Rd, St Clair, 4 pm

Club San­do FC vs Prison Ser­vice FC, Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Train­ing Field, Mara­bel­la, 4 pm

[asylumseeker]

Seems like there was a lot of big talk from Rangers after the Matura 10-2 win, but they conceded 2 goals and it wasn't like the opponent was  a team at the top of the standings.