Hotheaded Jabloteh beaten 3-2

CL FINANCIAL San Juan Jabloteh lost both their composure and their friendly football contest 3-2 against New York/New Jersey Metrostars at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Tuesday night. In the space of five minutes, recently-signed defender Charles Pollard and the midfield pair of Trent Noel and Michael Celestine were given their marching orders by referee Ramesh Ramdhan. Ramdhan also suffered the indignity of being tripped by combative midfielder Travis Mulraine during injury-time, to the consternation of the estimated crowd of 2,000. Mulraine, who was notoriously involved in a spat with Ramdhan at the same venue in 1998, later apologetically shook hands with Ramdhan. But that moment paled in comparison to the rush of blood of his teammates.

Pollard, who received a yellow card for an exchange with Metrostars’ captain Amado Guevara in the 74th, collected a red for a rough challenge on Tim Regan, while Noel was subsequently expelled after an altercation with Ramdhan. And Celestine got two bookings, in the 75th and 87th, as Jabloteh finished the encounter with eight players. Otis Seaton had the match’s first opportunity in the 16th, when he dribbled past three players outside the penalty box but saw his shot saved by Metrostars’ goalkeeper Zach Wells. Guevara also tested Jabloteh’s keeper Daurance Williams with a 20-metre blast, which was parried wide for a corner in the 22nd.

Against the run of play, Jabloteh took the lead in the 27th, when Metrostars’ defender Tim Ward failed to clear a left-side centre from striker Nigel “Croc” Pierre leaving Kerry Baptiste on hand to pounce the loose ball past Wells. The advantage would only last for two minutes, as Guevara sent Gilberto Flores free on the right and his (Flores) effort was parried by Williams straight to the path of John Wolyniec to blast into the open net. Baptiste failed to restore Jabloteh’s lead in the 31st, when his attempted lob over Wells went inches overbar, but Jamaican striker Nicholas Addlery put Jabloteh 2-1 up, in the 47th, when he outran defenders Chris Leitch and Jeff Parke and drilled his right-footer home.

Metrostars again fought back to equalise, this time in the 62nd, when Sergio Galvan Rey capitalised on a loose ball from Seaton, dribbled past Pollard on the left flank and fed Wolyniec who calmly lobbed the advancing Williams. Tensions were clearly mounting and Jabloteh paid dearly in the end. In the 86th, Chris Corcoran sent a square pass to fellow substitute Mark Lisi to blast home from 20 metres out. After the match, Metrostars’ coach Bob Bradley noted: “It was a good match, exciting from my standpoint. (It was) nice to see the team fight back from (being) behind and come away with a win.” Jabloteh’s tactician Michael Grayson admitted: “I thought we did pretty well except for the little blemish at the end where we lost our heads, unfortunately. It was a good experience for us overall.”

Teams -
SAN JUAN JABLOTEH: Daurance Williams; Keyeno Thomas, Charles Pollard, Ansil Elcock, Nigel Daniel; Trent Noel, Kerry Baptiste (Michael Celestine 57th), Otis Seaton (Nigel Codrington 78th - Marcelle Francois 86th), Angus Eve (capt) (Travis Mulraine 66th); Nicholas Addlery (Josh Johnson 57th), Nigel Pierre (Devon Mitchell 57th).
METROSTARS: Zach Wells; Carlos Mendes, Jeff Parke, Chris Leitch (Ademar Dos Santos 69th), Tim Ward (Osini Neto 56th); Michael Bradley (Mark Lisi 66th), Gilberto Flores (Tim Regan 46th), Mahktar N’diaye (Chris Corcoran 57th), Amado Guevara (capt) (Romon Bailey 77th); Sergio Galvan Rey, John Wolyniec.