The 2018 Secondary Schools Football League (SSFL) has ended with a thrilling final day last week Wednesday. The executive of the SSFL could not in their wildest dreams have planned a better and more absorbing finish than what transpired in at least 4 of the venues where the games were being played.
Presentation College San Fernando travelled to the fortress 'Book' - home of San Juan North knowing victory for them would have sealed the title. Any other result and Naparima College, who needed a win against Trinity College Moka, would be crowned champions. San Juan North, on the other hand, needed to hammer Presentation with 5 unanswered goals - a result which seemed unlikely before kickoff.
At the bottom end of the table, there was a real scrap. Valencia Secondary needed a big victory against the already relegated Fatima College while hoping that both St Mary's College and St Anthony's College lose to Trinity College East and East Mucurapo Secondary respectively by wide margins. Unfortunately, things went awry for the Valencia outfit and they were edged out by Fatima, condemning them back down to the Championship division for the 2019 season.
The champions Naparima College played unbeaten throughout the season and in fact inflicted the only defeat on the runners-up Presentation. These two teams are well-coached, organised, defensively both very strong and keep their shape well. Naparima seems to put a lot of emphasis on their defensive play so, it was not surprising that they conceded the least amount of goals in the league. It is because of this that there is little wonder as to why they were able to keep their nerve and take the title by 1 point.
Presentation has a good unit. They are a tough bunch, play an excellent all-around game and use the width of the field to their advantage. Their midfield play is based on hustling the opposition, winning the ball and putting their opponents under pressure. They would have won the league except for a brilliant and inspired display on the final afternoon by San Juan North goalkeeper Emmanuel John.
John's display between the uprights was the best I have seen for many years by a keeper in the SSFL. He absolutely lifted his team. I understand how this San Juan team was up there with the two southern colleges; they play a very flexible formation; a 4-2-3-1 and can quickly revert to a 4-4-2 or a 4-3-3 depending on their opposition. They possess some strong attacking players but depended too much on three of their players to score the goals.
Carapichaima East Secondary surprisingly finished 4th. They are a fighting unit and play for each other. They had a persistent and resilient attitude and up front, they created good chances. However, at times they lost their shape defensively and conceded too many goals to be a bigger threat to the top 3.
Outside of Queen's Royal College (QRC), the north colleges were terribly disappointing. QRC didn't give up many goals and as a matter of fact, only Naps conceded fewer goals than they did. QRC's problem was simple; they could not score goals and of the 15 schools in the league, they only scored more goals than 3, hence their 6th position. Fatima also had a goal scoring problem. They looked like a talented, young team but didn't know where the opposition's goal was. There is enough talent there to suggest they will bounce back immediately if they put the proper machinery in place.
I could not fathom the performances from CIC. This is a team with wonderful attacking players when they are clicking, but I am unsure as to whether they knew what they want to do. I had initially felt they would have been in the top 5 but they somehow rallied in the last 3 games by winning all and finishing in the top 10. They would now be extremely disappointed having been eliminated from the Intercol after falling short to St. Anthony's 1-0 in Monday's quarterfinal.
But with St. Anthony's, many begs the question of what has gone wrong? They look very disjointed, basically at times running around like headless chickens. Other schools realised early on that they were not the St Anthony's of yesteryear and going forward, they certainly need to reorganise their system and tighten their defence.
Of the other two relegated teams, Bishops were not up to the task and I am extremely concerned with the standard of football in the Tobago schools. Please ask Bertille St. Clair for some advice or very soon there will be no Tobago school in the Premier division. Valencia was far too inconsistent and heavily dependent on 1 or 2 players for their success; they need to put emphasis on the team.
The two Trinity colleges performed creditably but, Trinity East suffered, like many, from not scoring enough. They were well-organised and therefore, did not give away silly goals, enabling them to float around mid-table. Trinity Moka was also structured well but couldn't cope with the stronger, more physical teams.
The final three schools: St Benedicts, St Augustine and East Mucurapo were generally good but again, were not good enough to trouble the top schools. East Mucurapo is a plucky team and works hard for one another, whereas both Benedicts and 'Gustine' depend too much on their star strikers to score all of their goals.
A very good and exciting season for the league. Let's turn our attention to the Intercol where we may see an upset or two.
Good luck to all! Lastly, please do not forget to go to the Oval this Saturday for the disaster relief T20 match - North vs South. Support a worthy cause!