The British Airways Tobago Football Legends tournament kicked off this afternoon at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago.
Wired868 has you covered:
Tobago Football Legends
(Group A)
Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Paul McVeigh, Ruel Fox, Devon Leacock), Manchester United 2 (Ben Thornley, Bojan Djordic)
Former Manchester United star and 2006 World Cup captain Dwight Yorke produced the skill of the match with a sneaky roll through the leg of Spurs defender Mitchell Thomas. But Spurs took the three points.
Paul McVeigh gave Spurs an early lead against the run of the play before Ruel Fox doubled their lead. Ben Thornley pulled a goal back for Manchester after a build up that involved Yorke and Quinton Fortune.
But Tobagonian Devon Leacock, a former T&T 2001 World Youth Cup midfielder, put the game to bed with a powerful left footer in the second half.
Bojan Djordic puled one back for Manchester and they might have drawn level too. Fortune hit the bar and Danny Webber missed two presentable chances created by Yorke, including one that embarrassed Thomas. But Tottenham had the last laugh.
Arsenal 1 (Louis Boa Morte), Aston Villa 1 (Stefan Moore)
Luis Boa Morte doesn’t do friendlies. The combustible Portuguese attacker could probably get into a heated argument on the field even if he was the only one there. He could only help Arsenal to a point though.
Manchester United 2 (Danny Webber), Arsenal 0
Former West Indies cricket star Brian Lara was fashionably late to the fun. Insert punchline here.
More importantly, Danny Webber showed up after a couple of bad misses in Manchester’s first match. His double saw them to a comfortable win.
Tottenham Hotspur 1 (Paul McVeigh) Aston Villa 1 (Mark Walters)
Aston Villa should have taken three points here. Mark Walters put them ahead with a gorgeous angled left footer into the far corner. But a howler from Gavin Ward gave Spurs a sniff and McVeigh doesn’t need more that as he snatched a point for Tottenham.
(Group B)
Chelsea 2 (Sam Parkin, Cyd Gray), PFA All Stars 1 (Pierre Van Hooijdonk)
Sam Parkin and Pierre Van Hooijdonk scored one apiece for Chelsea and a PFA All Star team before Chelsea’s guest player Cyd Gray popped up to beat his former 2006 World Cup teammate and PFA goalkeeper Shaka Hislop with the last kick of the game.
With friends like these, who needs enemies?
Liverpool 4 (Marvin Andrews 2, Stan Collymore, Vlad Smicer), Caribbean All Stars 3 (Deon Burton, Stern John, Russell Latapy)
The Caribbean All Stars, the reigning Legends champions, stormed to an early 3-1 lead as former Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago World Cup players, Deon Burton, Stern John and Russell Latapy scored a goal each.
In the pre-tournament, Collymore warned that Liverpool were out for revenge after losing in the 2014 Legends. Collymore, whose father is Barbadian, scored first for Liverpool while guest player and 2006 World Cup defender Marvin Andrews notched a double before 2004/05 Champions League winner Vlad Smicer cut inside Dennis Lawrence and blasted the winner past Clayton Ince.
Liverpool 4 (Bjorn Kvarme 3, Stan Collymore), Chelsea 2 (Anthony Barness 2)
A brilliant flicked header over his own bar by guest player Marvin Andrews was a good example of how seriously the Liverpool players are taking this competition. At the other end, Stan Collymore thumped home another left footer and Bjorn Kwarme grabbed a cool hattrick as Liverpool ran out big winners.
Anthony Barness did save Chelsea’s blushes somewhat with a second half double.
PFA All Stars 3 (Matt Jensen,Pierre Van Hooijdonk, Michael Gray), Caribbean All Stars 3 (Dennis Lawrence, Stern John, Fitzroy Simpson)
Former World Cup 2006 goalkeeper and ESPN analyst Shaka Hislop had a steely glint in his eye for this fixture. Deon Burton limped off after a penalty box collision with the PFA custodian and Russell Latapy stroked the resulting penalty wide.
Hislop clipped his own shoulder on the bar as he clawed away a Stern John effort next and his hard work appeared to pay off as Matt Jensen put PFA ahead against the run of play off a Michael Mols pass.
Dennis Lawrence, another 2006 World Cup hero and the Everton assistant coach, pulled the Caribbean outfit back level but Pierre Van Hooijdonk and Michael Gray replied to put the PFA ahead 3-1.
But John salvaged an unlikely recovery for the reigning champions as he put away the rebound after Lawrence crashed an effort off the bar. And John came up with a decisive assist too as Jamaican 1998 World Cup midfielder Fitzroy Simpson squeezed a late equaliser past Hislop.
All to play for tomorrow for both teams!
Tomorrow’s Fixtures:
(Group A)
Aston Villa v Manchester United, 2.33 pm,
Tottenham Hotspur v Arsenal, 3.15 pm;
(Group B)
Chelsea v Caribbean All Stars, 2.54 pm;
PFA All Stars v Liverpool, 3.36 pm;
(Tobago Football Legends KO Round)
Semi-final One, 3.57 pm;
Semifinal Two, 4.18 pm;
Final, 5.08 pm.
British Airways Tobago Legends Challenge
(Updated team lists)
Arsenal FC: 1.Vince Bartram, 3.Ian Selley, 5.Jimmy Carter, 8.Stefan Schwarz, 4.Chris Whyte, 7.Luis Boa Morte, 2.Omer Riza, 6.Michael Thomas.
Aston Villa: 1.Gavin Ward, 3.Allan Wright, 4.Ugo Ehiogu, 9.Stefan Moore, 7.Mark Walters, 8.Darren Byfield, 10.Darius Vassell.
Guest player: 11.Huey Cadette. Absent: Graham Fenton.
Manchester United FC: 1.Raimond Van der Gouw, 2.Michael Clegg, 9.Dwight Yorke, 7.Quinton Fortune, 11.Bojan Djordic, 10.Brian Lara.
Guest players: 8.Danny Webber, 4.Ben Thornley. Missing: Ronny Johnsen, Louis Saha.
Chelsea FC: 8.Mark Stein, 6.David Lee, 4.Gareth Hall, 9.Sam Parkin, 11.Jody Morris.
Guest players: 2.Cyd Gray, 1.Richard Goddard, 7.Anthony Barness. Absent: Frank Sinclair, Ken Monkou.
Liverpool FC: 1.Tony Warner, 6.Stephane Henchoz, 8.Patrick Berger, 7.Vlad Smicer, 9.Bjorn Kvarme, 10.Stan Collymore.
Guest players: 5.Marvin Andrews, 4.Shonneil McMillan. Absent: Steve Harkness, David Thompson.
PFA All Stars: 1.Shaka Hislop, 9.Michael Gray, 14.Michael Mols, 3.Paul Scharner, 7.Ian Goodison, 10.Matt Jansen, 11.Ricardo Gardner, 17.Pierre Van Hoojidonk.
Caribbean All Stars: 1.Clayton Ince, 2.Paul Hall, 4.Marcus Gayle, 2.Russell Latapy, 8.Dennis Lawrence, 6.Stern John, 5.Fitzroy Simpson, 9.Deon Burton.
Tottenham Hotspur: 1.Radek Cerny, 3.Chris Perry, 10.Paul McVeigh, 4.Mitchell Thomas, 7.Ruel Fox, 8.Andy Sinton.
Guest players: 6.Everton McKein, 9.Devon Leacock. Absent: Neale Fenn, Sean Davis.
Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.
Villa!
I thought this was supposed to be a fun tournament… These reports certainly give the impression that the players, well, some players are taking it very seriously, which may well be a good thing from the point of view of the spectators…