Sun Palace takes Plate championship

Sun Palace’s Jung Soo Choo, left, and MP United Football Club’s Kamal Kamal kick the ball during the Cup finals of the M-League yesterday at the Oleai Sports Complex Field.
(Roselyn B. Monroyo)

Joon Kim and Guang Lin Li scored the two goals for Sun Palace, handing Matansa a sorry loss. Matansa was unbeaten in the fall season of M-League’s Division 2 and continued its run in the Plate tournament after beating World Resort in the semifinals before being stunned by the second-running Sun Palace in yesterday’s finale.

Kim put Sun Palace in the board in the 31st minute and his team kept the upper hand, as they dominated possession and had several more chances to score with Guang Zhi Jin setting up the former and Li. Jin usually stayed near midcourt and surveyed the pitcher before going for long passes, while Kim and Li sprinted to chase the ball and attack Matansa’s defense.

While Sun Palace had a good job passing the ball around, Matansa did the opposite in the majority of the match, as some of its players hung on to the leather too long. The team also could not complete its attacks, claiming it was running against the wind (facing the road) in the first half.

Matansa players tried to sort things out in the second half, telling each other to pass the ball and be aggressive. However, the pep talk failed to produce the needed goals for Matansa, as it could not finish plays. The team had three corner kicks in the second half, but not even one made it close to the goal, while the two free kicks were hit way too far.

As for Sun Palace, it continued running its offense on three players with Jin setting up either Li and Kim. One of Jin’s passes in the second half gave Sun Palace a good break, as Li received the leather to the right sideline. Three Matansa players teamed up in preventing Li from attacking with captain Amzad Hossain Khan deciding at the last minute to roll into the box with his two other teammates following Li. Li then kicked the ball and it hit Khan, who was unfortunately called for a handball. Sun Palace contended the ball hit Khan’s back when he turned. However, the head umpire saw otherwise, saying when Khan turned and was hit by the ball, he also lifted up his right arm (above waist level).

Li was given the penalty kick after the Matansa infraction in the 66th minute and he connected the shot against goalie Moe Zaw with the ball rolling too fast the right corner post.

Li’s penalty shot gave Sun Palace the insurance, while Matansa still could not find a way to score in the all-important match. The closes that Matansa could get was when Ahmed Titu got inside the left key of the penalty box and went for a cross, but his shot was a bit strong. Titu had two more opportunities to score, under the 15-minute mark when he was inside the box, facing Sun Palace goalie Kyu Jin Hong. However, Hong kept his ground and was quick on the ball. The two faced each other for the third time in the closing minutes with Hong again defeating Titu for the ball (near where the right corner kick is taken) and the latter accidentally kicking the former near the groin area. Hong grimaced in pain for a while, but shook it off to finish the match and complete the upset against the frustrated Matansa crew.

Meanwhile, Inter Godfather’s and MP United Football Club fought for the Cup last night and results of their title game will be reported in Saipan Tribune’s Tuesday edition.