JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

W Connection, Central FC win big

by

20140410

Suri­name's Dim­itre Api scored a sec­ond-half hat-trick as four-time Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League cham­pi­ons, Di­recTV W Con­nec­tion stayed on course, thump­ing Po­lice 6-1 in the fea­ture match of a dou­ble-head­er at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um, Cou­va, on Tues­day night.

In the sec­ond match, Cen­tral FC led by a Willis Plaza tre­ble spanked Cale­do­nia AIA 5-1, to join W Con­nec­tion and idle de­fend­ing cham­pi­on De­fence Force, with 32 points from 17 match­es, in a three-horse race for the $1 mil­lion prize.

En­ter­ing the match with a sev­en-point lead over Cou­va neigh­bour Cen­tral FC, W Con­nec­tion was ea­ger for a quick start and did so, cour­tesy two penal­ty-kicks con­vert­ed by na­tion­al mid­field­er Jo­evin Jones in the 15th and 23rd minute.

First, Jo­evin blast­ed past goal­keep­er Adri­an Fon­cette's reach to­wards the up­per net­ting af­ter Ariel Mc David's foul on Kurt Fred­er­ick well in­side the area and then he got his sec­ond when ref­er­ee Ce­cil Hinds point­ed to the spot when Jo­evin's broth­er, Alvin Jones went to ground un­der a chal­lenge from Jasi­mar Ash­ers to take his tal­ly to 12 for the sea­son, the same as North East Stars for­ward Trevin Cae­sar and one be­hind Pt Fortin Civic's Mar­cus Joseph.

It got worse for Po­lice three min­utes lat­er as Mc David was shown a sec­ond yel­low-card by Hinds for a foul on Apai near the touch-line to leave his team to play the rest of the match with 10 men.

W Con­nec­tion then had shouts for a re­mark­able third penal­ty waived off af­ter Apai was brought down by Ash­ers and with­in sec­onds Po­lice pulled a goal back in the 29th when Jameel Per­ry fired past W Con­nec­tion goal­keep­er Ju­lani Archibald af­ter in­ter­cept­ing a poor back pass by Fred­er­ick.

The short-hand­ed Law­men al­most got an­oth­er when Per­ry fired on­to the base of the post in the 40th minute but it was not to be and three min­utes in­to the sec­ond-half, he was quick to re­act to a Todd Ryan that ric­o­chet in­to his path, on­ly to fire tame­ly at Archibald.

The 19-year-old Apai, who joined the "Savonet­ta Boys" dur­ing the Jan­u­ary trans­fer win­dow, then made Po­lice pay for their missed ef­forts when he scored from a Neil Ben­jamin pass, to re­store his team's two-goal cush­ion at 3-1 while 20-min­utes lat­er, Hashim Ar­cia, end­ed any hopes of a Po­lice come­back with his team's fourth item, a sweet­ly timed vol­ley.

With the match all over as a con­test, Apai man­aged to add a late dou­ble in the 88th and 93rd, to com­plete his hat-trick as his team im­proved to 45 points with three match­es left to play.

They in­clude two against De­fence Force and one ver­sus Cale­do­nia as they bid to add to their pre­vi­ous league tri­umphs in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2011/2012.

But still hot on W Con­nec­tion's heels, is Cen­tral which al­so got a hat-trick from for­mer Viet­nam-based strik­er, Willis Plaza in its equal­ly as im­pres­sive, 5-1 de­mo­li­tion of Cale­do­nia.

Plaza, who al­so scored a dou­ble in his team's 4-0 bash­ing of the same Cale­do­nia in their Lu­cozade Sports Goal Shield quar­ter­fi­nal at the same venue last Fri­day, fired in the open­er in the 17th minute but Montser­rat strik­er Ju­lian Wade lev­eled for Cale­do­nia with­in six min­utes.

It seemed as though Cale­do­nia did not learn any­thing from Fri­day's meet­ing with Cen­tral, as the dan­ger­ous Plaza re­gained his team's lead in the 29th while for­mer mid­field­er Ataulla Guer­ra made it two goals in two match­es against his for­mer em­ploy­ers with a 45th minute item for a 3-1 cush­ion.

Plaza then com­plet­ed his hat-trick 13 min­utes af­ter the restart while Samuel Delice, snapped up dur­ing the trans­fer win­dow added a fifth item, in the 75th.

Up at the Mar­vin Lee Sta­di­um, Ma­coya, North East Stars saw its slim hopes of lift­ing the ti­tle end­ed in a 1-0 loss to fel­low top-two hope­fuls, Pt Fortin Civic.

Get­ting the de­ci­sive strike for Pt Fortin was Joseph in the 54th minute with his league lead­ing 14th goal of the cam­paign.

The win saw Pt Fortin take sole pos­s­e­sion of third spot with 36 points, but with on­ly two match­es left to play while Stars, slipped to fourth with 33 points and three match­es re­main­ing. Be­fore they re­sume league play, W Con­nec­tion and Cen­tral will be favourites to reach the Lu­cozade Sport Goal Shield fi­nal when they meet Pt Fortin (6 pm) and North East Stars (8 pm), re­spec­tive­ly, in their semi­fi­nal at Cou­va to­mor­row.

Tues­day's re­sults

W Con­nec­tion 6 (Dim­itre Apai 53rd, 88th, 93rd, Jo­evin Jones 15th pen, 23rd pen, Hashim Ar­cia 73rd) vs Po­lice 1 (Jameel Peery 29th)

Cen­tral FC 5 (Willis Plaza 17th, 29th, 58th, Ataulla Guer­ra 45th, Samuel Delice 75th) vs Cale­do­nia AIA 1 (Ju­lian Wade 23rd)

Jabloteh 2 (Neil Mitchell 88th, 92nd) vs St Ann's Rangers 2 (Kevon Corn­wall 63rd, Kadeem Corbin 66th)

Pt Fortin Civic 1 (Mar­cus Joseph 54th) vs North East Stars 0


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Shastri Boodan

Shastri Boodan

Apsara inspires youth through culture

8 hours ago
Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne: Global Hero of Hope supports cancer survivors

Yesterday
During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

Standing on business, not pity: My fight begins–Part 2

Yesterday
Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza’s American culinary journey springs from T&T roots

Yesterday