Sports
Roneil Walcott
The Trinidad and Tobago Premier Football League (TTPFL) tier two season will finally come to an end when the Big 6 final is contested at the Phase 2 La Horquetta recreation ground on July 20. However, the final stages of the league season have not come without drama, as the preliminary phase was abruptly halted with several matches still outstanding after a meeting was convened with at least 13 of the 21 tier two clubs on July 11.
For this tier two season, teams were split into groups of ten and 11, respectively. However, the organisers ran into scheduling problems throughout the season and had to postpone many fixtures because of the inability to secure return flights for the Tobago clubs (Bethel SC, Carnbee/Mt Pleasant FC and Sidey’s Sports Club) for the entire campaign. Group two’s matches were concluded, but with the three Tobago teams all in group one, there were still outstanding matches in the 11-team group, which left the TTPFL in a serious dilemma.
Bethel, Carnbee/Mt Pleasant and Sidey’s all had more than five games left to play, while eventual group one winners Police also had games outstanding. With TT set to host matches in the CFU Club Shield (July 26-August 3), CFU Girls’ Under-14 Challenge Series (August 15-24) and a Fifa 2026 World Cup qualifier (September 5), TTPFL acting CEO Yale Antoine said the calendar was becoming too congested to facilitate the remaining tier two league matches in a timely manner.
“We looked at the top three in the groups as they were at the time, their residual games. We gave them the option between either one point for the games unplayed or two points for the games unplayed. And then we would have carried it up to 20 games based on what the final product would look like based on it,” Antoine said, in an interview on July 15.
“We didn’t get much feedback (from the clubs) on whether they preferred one point or two, so I would have just leaned on the expertise of the staff and the competitions department to liaise with the teams and just proceed with it as it is. It was more of an issue that the league was stopping in general, but there were an equal number of teams who were also finding problems with the league constantly being dragged out.”
The high-flying Defence Force (47 points) topped group two with ease, with Palo Seco Union Hall Union United (37 points) and Central Soccer World (33 points) finishing second and third respectively. After the calculations used by the TTPFL, Police (45 points) topped group one, with Malabar Youngstars (43 points) and QPCC (38 points) occupying the next two spots. At the fixture cut-off, UTT were level on 35 points with QPCC. However, with one game in hand to QPCC’s three, UTT’s final points tally only jumped to 36.
“The way I saw it, was a lot of the matches that were still pending would not have affected the top three finish in that group. The three from group two were solidified. The three from group one were the only ones it had some kind of possible contention with, but it had to come to a stop. (The league) was going on for too long.” Based on available flights, Antoine said September would have been the soonest tier two could come to a conclusion. He deemed that timeline unacceptable as the league also wants to host its closing off ceremony on August 9.
QPCC, Malabar into semis
On the field of play, QPCC and Malabar booked their spots in the semifinals of the tier two season after getting penalty shootout wins in their Big 6 playoff matches in La Horquetta on July 14.
With Defence Force and Police FC qualifying directly to the semis, the other four teams contested a playoff to try and make the semis.
In the second match of the playoff double-header, Union Hall got a late goal to tie the game at 2-2 and force it to penalties. In the shootout, QPCC held their nerves to get an enthralling 6-5 victory.
Union Hall opened the scoring through Joash Baird in the 15th minute and took a 1-0 lead into the half. However, QPCC battled back in the second half and two goals from Jaden McKree (51st and 81st minutes) saw them taking a 2-1 lead. In the fifth minute of second-half stoppage time, defender Kyle Sylvester dramatically scored for Union Hall to level the game in the dying moments.
In the subsequent shootout, the teams were tied at 4-4 after five kicks apiece. In sudden-death kicks, McKree came up clutch for the Parkites again as he scored the all-important sixth goal.
In the other playoff match, Malabar emerged 4-1 winners on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw through regulation time with Central Soccer World (CSW). Malabar’s Kendell Boneo equalised in the second half after Ethan Trotman gave CSW an 11th-minute lead. Malabar were then perfect from the spot to book a final four spot.
In the semis on July 17, Police will meet QPCC from 6 pm at the La Horquetta venue, with Defence Force playing Malabar from 8 pm.
