Caledonia Fire, Army lick Pro Bowl wounds

Neal and Massy Caledonia AIA Fire and the Defence Force both narrowly missed out on a chance at appearing at their first ever Pro Bowl final, after they lost on penalties to W Connection and San Juan Jabloteh respectively in the semi-finals on Friday.

Caledonia battled to a goalless draw with W Connection-and then went on to lose the penalty shootout 5-4 in sudden death, while Defence Force took their exit in similar fashion losing their penalty shoot-out to San Juan Jabloteh 5-3-after they played creditably and battled to a 2-2 draw after regulationtime.

The Army coach Anthony Barrington tried to take the result in stride.

He told ttproleague.com, “I am really disappointed, because I thought we played to plan and we deserved to win-to come so close, after playing so well and not moving on is really hard to accept, but that’s the game.”

The Army/Coast Guard outfit has rebounded tremendously from a horrible start to the 2006 season, after losing the first five matches. The “men from Tetron” then went on to stay unbeaten in their next five encounters before losing to Jabloteh on penalties in the Pro Bowl semi-final.

Coach Barrington is confident his side will continue to grow in confidence as the season goes along.

“I told you before, we got a late start to our pre-season and we needed a couple weeks into the new season to start running smoothly-and I believe the players are now coming to terms with what needs to be done,” he said.

As for the Caledonia Camp they too were distraught at being kicked out at the semi-final stage via a penalty shootout.

Assistant coach Jerry Moe who took charge of the team in the absence of coach Jamal Shabazz, who was on national duty with the women’s national team was also distressed at being kicked out.

“We played another high intensity match and matched W Connection stride for stride-it was one of those things, we failed to score-and it was anyone’s game once it got down to penalties,” Moe said.

W Connection and Jabloteh will now meet in their third consecutive Pro Bowl Final on Friday at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella.