NEWLY-CROWNED Trinidad and Tobago Premier Football League (TTPFL) tier one champions AC PoS and dethroned 2023 league champions Defence Force will continue their search for additional silverware when they contest their respective First Citizens Knockout Cup semifinals on May 23.
In the first game of a doubleheader at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, the Army/Coast Guard combination will play Central FC from 6 pm. Through 20 games in the 2023/24 TTPFL season which concluded on May 19, Central FC got just two points and suffered a staggering 18 losses. In the First Citizens Knockout Cup, though, the “Couva Sharks” have found a winning touch and they have reached the tournament’s last four after shrugging off the challenges posed by TTPFL tier two opposition.
In Defence Force, Central will meet a team that will be looking to make amends after finishing third behind AC PoS and Miscellaneous Police FC in the league campaign. Defence Force copped last year’s knockout title to go along with their league trophy, after getting an exciting extra-time win in the final against Terminix La Horquetta Rangers.
In this year’s tourney, Defence Force got by Rangers at the round of 16 stage, before getting a thrilling penalty shootout victory against Tiger Tanks Club Sando in the quarter-final round. When they meet tier one’s cellar-placed team, Defence Force will aim to contest their second straight TTPFL knockout final.
In the second semifinal, captain Duane Muckette and his AC PoS team will look to brush aside the challenge from a resurgent Prisons FC outfit, which finished ninth in the league.
On their road to the semifinals, AC PoS got by Police’s tier two outfit in the round of 16, while they edged out fellow tier one team Eagles FC by a 2-1 margin in their quarterfinal. And after securing the TTPFL title with a comprehensive 3-0 win against Heritage Petroleum Point Fortin Civic on May 19, the “Capital Boys” will try to assert their dominance with their free-flowing game once more.
Prisons will come into the game with a measure of confidence themselves, as they held AC PoS to a 1-1 draw in a league meeting between the teams at the Mucurapo venue on May 2, while they have come out on the right end of close encounters in their run to the Cup semis. In the preliminary round, Prisons got a stoppage-time 2-1 win over UTT Patriots, with goalkeeper Aaron Enill scoring a late penalty to secure the win. Enill made his Soca Warriors debut last week when TT got a 2-0 win against Guyana in a friendly encounter. He’s also shown off his fine form for Prisons between the sticks too, featuring in back-to-back shootout wins to help his team set up a semis showdown with AC PoS.
From 8 pm, Enill and Prisons will attempt to slay the TTPFL giants AC PoS.
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