Junior Mafia were crowned champions of the 2016 Guinness Street Football Challenge after crushing Untouchables 3-0 in the final on Saturday evening to win the $20,000 first prize and book their flight to St Lucia for the Regional Grand Championships from July 2-3.
The final was played in front of a massive crowd at the Buccoo Integrated Facility in Tobago and the skilful Jerwyn Balthazar did not disappoint as he gave Junior Mafia the lead midway through the first half by squeezing the ball through Johann Di Bique’s legs.
Then in quick succession, Golden Boot winner Kerry Joseph (eight goals) and Noel Williams won the match for their team by increasing the lead to 3-0 with two smart finishes.
The Maloney-based team comprising of national futsal players had qualified for the national finals as the South Zone champions.
They played unbeaten throughout the group stages and easily defeated Chelsea FC 2-0 in the semi-final round with Joseph making it 1-0 in the first half courtesy a penalty and TT futsal captain Balthazar scoring with a composed finish in the second period.
However, in the other semi- final match Untouchables had to overcome a stubborn effort from Foreign Based to register a hard fought 1-0 victory thanks to a goal from Andrew Tinto that was well celebrated by the crowd.
In the third place playoff, Foreign Based salvaged some pride as they secured the $5,000 prize money for third place when they whipped Chelsea FC 4-0. Nicholas Clarke and Neil Mitchell scored in the first half and as the floodgates opened courtesy Shane Hospedales who demonstrated some fancy footwork on his way to scoring two goals.
Junior Mafia, with their spot in the Regional Championships secured, are in contention of securing an all-expenses paid football tour to Brazil while Untouchable picked up the second-place prize of $10,000.
Joseph collected $1,000 for his goalscoring prowess.