FFAS MEDIA

Pago Pago, American Samoa, Wednesday, April 28, 2010 — The No. 1 and 2 seeds of the FFAS Futsal League 2010 suffered upsets in the playoffs for the men’s division held on April 27 at the ASCC gymnasium.

No. 1 FC SKBC lost to No. 4 Black Roses 3-1 while No. 3 Lion Heart crushed No. 2 Tafuna Jets 4-1.

In the women’s competition, the No’s 1 and 2 seeds will duke it out in the championship match after top seed Black Roses edged No. 4 Ilaoa & To’omata 3-0 and second ranked Utulei Youth won on penalties against No. 3 Tafuna Jets back on Thursday, April 22, 2010.

The playoffs on April 27 were a continuation of the games from April 22 that were postponed because of a power outage.

MEN’S DIVISION

BLACK ROSES 3, FC SKBC 1

This was a re-match of the Futsal season opener that saw the South Korean Baptist Church squad dominate Black Roses in a 5-3 win.

But this time around, Black Roses came out strong and held the division’s top scoring team to a 0-0 stalemate in the first half. Another factor in this low scoring output for FC SKBC was the absence of their top goal scorer, gunslinger Gun Chul Kang who was serving a one-game suspension due to an accumulation of yellow cards.

Three minutes into the second half Jin Lee struck for SKBC to go up 1-0 but four minutes later Black Roses’ Dion Ott equalized.

Another three minutes passed before Alapati Sula stunned SKBC with a magnificent shot from 11 yards away and his momentum carried him towards his team’s supporters where he went through a series of high fives to celebrate the go-ahead goal.

Finally, with four minutes to play Ott added a second goal to make up the game’s final tally.

LION HEART 4, TAFUNA JETS 1

The youngsters took control of this game early on by scoring just two minutes and two seconds into the start off of a nifty goal by Justin Newton.

Falagasisi Tomasi scored the first of his two goals five minutes later for a 2-0 Lion Heart lead that was cut by one four minutes later when the Jets’ Sam ‘Pili’ Taulealo scored.

In the second half both teams played to a virtual standstill until Tomasi added his second of the match with 7:10 to play and Rafe Luvu made it 4-1 with 1:16 to play.

The championship match between Lion Heart and Black Roses would be another vengeance-seeking win for the latter as they were thoroughly dominated 4-1 when they met on March 31.

Black Roses will also be looking to make it a double just like the 2009 11-a-side National League when both their men and women’s teams were declared champions of the shortened season because of the earthquake and tsunami that struck on September 29.

WOMEN’S DIVISION

BLACK ROSES 3, ILAOA & TO’OMATA 0

Angela Sa’o came through for Black Roses as she scored a brace against a very tough opponent in Ilaoa & To’omata.

The Leone-based squad played well defensively in holding the division’s top scoring team in check until Sa’o scored with 12 minutes to play in the first half.

In the second, it took her two minutes to score her second and Jasmine Makiasi scored with just 15 seconds to play in the match.