San Juan Jabloteh were crowned the Pro Bowl champions for a second straight year running, as they some how managed to come back from a two goal deficit to sneak past W Connection 3 -2 in sudden death penalty kicks. The match played at the Mannie Ramjohn Stadium marked the second time in two years that both teams have contested the finals.
Following the match, Jabloteh's coach Terry Fenwick said "It's fantastic to retain the cup -- its one of the big competitions in the country now. It was a very hard fought competition and to do it this year with the new additions to the Pro League -- we are actually glad to lift the cup again."
The English born coach also touched on the absence of his world cup bound players, Aurtis Whitley, Cyd Gray and Anthony Wolfe.
Fenwick said it was a big loss, but Jabloteh is about developing youngsters in Trinidad and Tobago, he said, "The youngsters stepped up to the plate and we are glad with the progress of our youngsters."
However, the sometimes controversial coach sounded a warning to the rest of the League. He said "There are still three competitions and the League title to go after and we would be pitching for everything -- I mean that! I think we've got terrific players coming through and the international players would be back from the world cup, so we are in good shape."
Fenwick's opposite number, Stuart Charles Fervier was a bit philosophical about his team's defeat.
He said "W Connection would continue to work hard and continue to believe in ourselves, because we have not achieved what we have by luck; we've won 17 titles in 7 years and we are a very young club and sometimes people forget that because of what we have achieved."
Speaking directly on the match, the St. Lucian born coach said, "On the night even though Jabloteh played well, I thought we actually played better and we have only ourselves to blame for losing, even if we did not win it in normal play, we should have won it on penalties; some of the guys made some very unusual mistakes."
Mr Fervier also paid tribute to San Juan Jabloteh's goalkeeper Durance Williams for his key saves in the match. However, he also noted that some of his players changed their kicks from their normal way of kicking which was very unusual. For his heroics Jabloteh's goalkeeper Daurance Williams was named the Most Valuable Player of the competition.