Besta FA Cup

Bougainville men who raised their provincial flag since day one of tournament met their fate going down to Kimbe 1-nil in the grand final on Sunday.

In the women’s grand final, Kimbe upset NBPOL Kumbango 1 nil in extra time after both were locked at nil all, at fulltime.

Kimbe men will now join Momase leg winners, Almami, with runner-up Morobe Football Association and Southern leg winners, Hoods and runner-up Kamali, for the Besta FA Cup finals to be held in Lae in September.

The grand final in Lae finished at nil all in regular time, forcing the match going into extra time.

With the score still unchanged, it went down to a penalty shootout with a brilliant save from Madang’s keeper, Gewa Mikes, followed by the winning goal from skipper, Max Sengum proving the difference.

Madang walked away with K20, 000 in prize money, while PMSA settled for K15, 000.

Finishing third, Morobe Football Association took home K10, 000 and Hoods pocketed K5, 000.

This could see them come off as top of their pool with six points at the PNGFA Academy, 11-Mile.

MFA blasted Simbu 5-1 and then knocked off Hoods 3-2 to be the only undefeated team in the first day challenge.

After their loss in the hands of MFA in their first match, the boys from Central Province came back organised in their second match, defeating Simbu 6-1 in the other Pool B match.

Six men’s teams and four women’s teams will do battle from November 2^nd through to November 4^th to see who will be crowned champions for this year.

Men’s- Group A: PMSA, Talasea and Madang.

Group B: MFA, Simbu and Hoods.

The top two teams from each group will progress to the semi-finals followed by a winner-takes-all final.

Women’s- Kimbe, MFA, PMSA and Simbu.

In the women’s, the round-robin matches will be followed by a straight final, with the winner to be crowned women’s champions of the 2017 Besta FA Cup.

The International Food Corporation (IFC) sponsored Besta FA Cup Challenge will be played across the four regions. The Mamose challenge will kick off the competition in Madang on the 10^th to the 13^th of August at the Laiwaden Oval. 

Confirmed teams to participate in the Mamose challenge are Lahi (men and women), LFA (men and women), Wau (men and women), Maprik (men), Vanimo Urban (men) and Ramu Sugar (men and women). 

They defeated Madang 1-0 in the grand final today at the Lae Football Association Park thanks to a goal from Richard Lote.

It was a replay of last year’s grand final where both teams played for the Cup with Manus finishing on top.

Manus wasted no time scoring 35 minutes into the first half 1-0 through Lote who found the net five metres outside the goal keeper’s box. 

It was a tough encounter as Manus maintained defence preventing Madang from scoring in the second half despite several attempts.