Foundation Fire made a statement when they won their third Guinness Street Football Challenge Central Zone title at the Edinburgh 500 Basketball Court in Chaguanas last Saturday.
After being denied the opportunity of becoming the first team to cop a hat-trick of zonal titles when Chelsea handed them a 1-0 defeat from the penalty spot in last year’s final, the former two-time defending champion got a chance to set the record straight when they once against had to do battle with Chelsea.
And they did so by triumphing by a 1-0 margin in regulation time when Kosi Gabriel found the back of the net in the sixth minute of play. The champs progressed to the semi-finals by playing undefeated in the round-robin phase of the competition. They whipped Sweaters 2-0; trashed Schoolaz 5-0; and handed 500 United a 3-1 loss to finish their Group B fixtures with statistics of scoring ten while conceding a solitary goal.
Foundation would proceed to close out Group A’s runner-up, Corner Boys, 1-0 to proceed to their fourth consecutive zonal final. Chelsea on the other hand, registered 2-0 wins over FC Ballers and Bank Village Sweaters before securing a 1-0 penalty triumph over Corner Boys to top Group A.
In the semi-finals they faced 500 United, who had secured the runner-up position in Group B, and dispatched them with a 3-0 shutout. Chelsea was hoping they could repeat last year’s heroics of containing the usually free-scoring Foundation but it was not to be as Gabriel would breach their defence to put the result beyond doubt.
Foundation also had the distinction of having the top two marksmen in Lyndon Ferguson and Gabriel who finished with five goals apiece. Ferguson notched a beaver trick in their 5-0 blanking of Schoolaz while Gabriel scored the winning item in the semi-final and final.
Central Zone results:
Final: Foundation Fire 1 (K. Gabriel, 6th) vs Chelsea 0
Semi-finals: Foundation Fire 1 (K. Gabriel, 13th) vs Corner Boys 0;
Chelsea 3 (D. Ramasray, 5th, R. Ramasray, 6th, K. Joseph, 11th) vs 500 United 0