It wasn’t such a busy weekend for the KOPA League with only five fixtures taking place due to the qualifying World Cup 2012 fixtures.

First Division

Olympia 0 Rizokarpasso 1

This was always going to be a tight game with Rizokarpasso the better of both teams in the first half but a strong Olympia defence kept Rizo out. It was an error from an Olympia defender that let Rizokarpasso striker Anthony Macdonald nick the ball and move forward to strike the ball into the net in the 35th minute for the only goal of the game.

Olympia must have got a good talking to from their manager George Georgiou in the half team break and as a result they upped their tempo and came close to scoring in the late stages of the game there was one incident when a shot from an Olympia striker hit a Rizokarpasso defender and the ball was deflected onto the Rizo cross bar.

Aradippou Enosis London 0 Cetinkaya Cinar 2

The first half was a tight affair with not many chances, however a Josh Djelal shot just outside the area could not be held  by the sub keeper Kyriacos (who replaced injured keeper Andreas in the second minute of the game) for 0-1. Cetinkaya controlled most of the game and in the 65th minute Marcus Samuals was fouled when running on goal and a penalty was awarded. Volkan Altinok made no mistake with his finish. 0-2. AEL was reduced to 10 men and Cinar sub Salih Karakis squandered 2 chances, but in the end Cinar went away with the points.

Maronites 3 Tripimeni 4

What a football feast this was anything is possible with this passionate Maronites team. Tripimeni led from the 15th minute with a spectacular goal from Ricky Louka a well taken fifthteen yard volley.

Alex roussis added a second for Tripimeni in the 25th minute and out of the blue in a spell of ten minutes Maronites scored two goals from Yianni and Dino Costa to equalise to go into the half time break 2-2.

Tripimeni increased their lead to 4-2 with a second for Ricky Louca and a fourth coming from Henderson Brown but this seem to bring out the best in the fighting Maronites who got a goal back with James Chapman and they continued battling till the final minute to try and get an equaliser.

Brotherhood 1 New Salamis 2

Champions New Salamis had a difficult time trying to get the three points to keep them on track for the Championship. Brotherhood still to gain a point played very well. New Salamis led from the 35th minute with a headed goal from Nick Nicou. Brotherhood equalised in the 55th minute with a long distance shot from Christos Hajipapas that took a deflection into the back of the New Salamis goal.

New Salamis scored a goal in the 75th minute with a well taken penalty from their striker George Gregoriou.

In the dying minutes Brotherhood hit the post and also the Red’s goalkeeper Michael Kalli had to pull off a great save to keep Brotherhood at bay and give New Salamis a 2-1 win.

Second Division

Cyprus Youth (KLN) 1 Pantel 0

The only goal of the game came in the 55th minute with a great piece of individual skill from Adam McKinnon. He picked up the ball from just outside the Pantel area, dropped his right shoulder to go past one defender an then his left shoulder to go past another and struck the ball sweetly to score.

It took something special like that to beat the Pantel keeper who was in fine form the whole game and kept his side in the game on a few occasions, and KLN even had the ball cleared off the line twice.

Overall this was quite a scrappy game between the two sides with Pantel not creating any chances but the eventual winners deserved the 3 points, and now for the first time this season Cyprus Youth sit at the top of division 2.

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply