The Southern Football Association, Eastern FA, Central FA and the Eastern Counties Football Union (ECFU) have advanced to the semi-finals of the National Lotteries Control Board (NLCB) National Elite Youth Programme Boys Under 13 to be played at a date to be determined.
These matches have been set tentatively for the new home of football at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Balmain Couva. The Regional associations were involved in tense action on Wednesday last, as the nation celebrated Divali. And at the end of it, the southern fa and eastern counties finished with unblemished records from their two games in their respective groups which took them to the top with six points each.
The southerners defeated both the eastern fa and the Tobago FA by similar 2-0 margins, first getting goals from Molik Khan and Isiah Thompson in the 21st and 28th minute to shot-out the easterners. Later in the day Khan again found the net in the 3rd minute to open the scoring against the team from the sister isle, before Kern Smart sealed the victory with his item in the 33rd minute. They were joined the in the semis by the eastern fa, whose 2-0 victory over the Tobagonians proved to be sufficient.
Their victory came courtesy a 20th minute strike from Nathaniel James as well a goal on the half-hour mark from Terrell Gibson which earned them the runner-up position in the group. In the other group the eastern counties got a double strike from Omari Campbell in the 5th and 22nd, and another from Tristan Starford in the 17th to complete a 3-0 triumph over the Central FA in their first match. In their second game however they were made to work hard for a 3-2 victory over a battling Northern FA.
They took a 2-0 advantage when Campbell found the nets twice in the space of three minutes in the 12th and 15th minute. The northerners pulled a goal back in the 18th from Josiah Wilson, but Terron Miller sealed the win for the ECFU youths in the 21st minute, despite another Wilson goal in the 24th minute.
The ECFU were joined in the semis from the group by Central FA which earned the right to be among the top four teams in the tournament when they defeated northern fa 3-1, courtesy a hat-trick from Dantaye Gilbert in the 1st, 4th and 30th minutes.