Paire vs MP United in FA Cup finals

Paire boys U12 and MP United boys U12 arranged their championship duel in the 2011 NMFIFA Boys and Girls FA Cup following separate semis wins last Monday at the Hopwood Junior High School Field.

Paire was paired against MP United girls U15 in Pool A semis and eased its way to a shutout win, 3-0, while MP United boys U12 downed Matansa girls U15 in Pool B semis tiff, 3-1. Paire and MP United boys U12 teams will slug it out in the winner-take-all finals this Saturday at 1pm at the Hopwood pitch.

Gideon Borja and Michael Lee scored for Paire in the semifinals with the former making it to the scoreboard first. Gideon found the back of the net 20 minutes into the first half for Paire’s 1-0 halftime lead.

In the second half, Lee made back-to-back goals in a span of less than a minute. He had his first goal at the 08:02 mark, while the second one came 23 seconds later.

In the other semis tiff between MP United boys U12 and Matansa girls U15 squads, Moris Villanueva also canned twin goals to bring the former to the finals. Villanueva scored one goal each in the first and second half, while MP United’s third goal was courtesy of Bada Lee.

Jace Pineda handed Matansa its lone goal in the match.

This year’s FA Cup for the boys U12 and girls U15 teams featured nine squads that played in the fall league regular season for more than two months. Paire boys U12 was in Pool A with Tan Holdings U12, Shirley’s U12 and MP United and Shirley’s FC girls U15 teams. Pool B has Matansa and MP United boys U12 squads and Tan Holdings, Paire, and Matansa U15 girls teams.

To make it all the way to the finals, Paire boys U12 notched three wins in Pool A. In started its FA Cup bid with a 4-0 thrashing of Tan Holdings FC U12. Then in the second round, Paire U12 was pitted against the top-seeded Shirley’s FC U12 and nailed a similar 4-0 shutout win to advance to the semifinals.

MP United girls U15 eased its way into the semis in Pool A after drawing a bye in the first round and then winning via forfeit over Shirley’s FC girls U15.

Over at Pool B, MP United boys U12 drew Matansa boys U12 in the first round and won, 3-2, to make it to the second round against Tan Holdings FC girls U15. MP United boys U12 team was unstoppable in the second round, routing Tan Holdings female strikers, 9-0, to march into the semis against Matansa girls U15. Matansa’s female strikers needed only one win to book a semis seat, beating Paire girls U15 on Nov. 26 via penalty shootout, 2-0.