adminONE hundred and eighty six goals in just TWO games played on the same day!
And, only one conceded.
That was the strange tale from Sierra Leone on Sunday when two crucial matches produced a total of 186 goals in Kenema and Kono.
The incredible results in the Super 10 Eastern Region left many Sierra Leoneans and the world football community in shock.
Going into the matches, both teams (Kahunla Rangers from Kenema and Gulf FC from Kono) were tied on 32 points each.
Gulf were ahead by virtue of goal difference and they were fighting for the second spot to immediately get a chance to qualify for the Premier League play-offs.
Kahunla Rangers sent spies to Kono while Gulf FC also sent spies to Kenema to provide updates of what was happening in both matches.
Gulf FC were leading the first half 7-1 while Kahunla Rangers were leading the first half 2-0.
Kahunla smashed Lumbebu United 95-0 while Gulf FC won 91-1.
There was a red card for a Lumbebu player but that expulsion came after more than 30 goals had been scored.
The centre referee refused to officiate the second 45 minutes because of fears it could be fixed.
Earlier this year, four South African soccer clubs were banned from their league for life amid some eye-popping match fixing allegations.
Fourth-tier clubs Matiyasi FC, Shivulani Dangerous Tigers, Kotoko Happy Boys and Nsami Mighty Birds were all banned after a stunning display that included referees and club officials.
The Matiyasi and Mighty Birds conspired to keep the Tigers – holding a plus-16 goal differential over second place Matiyasi – from being promoted out of the SAFA Mopani Zebras Steam A.
In doing so, Matiyasi claimed a ridiculous 22-0 halftime lead over Nsami.
Seeing this, players from Shivulani and Kootko went out and one-upped their counterparts.
Several Happy Boys players left the field at the half claiming fatigue, leaving just seven Kotoko play-ers to finish the game.
The Tigers won in a 33-1 rout. Matiyasi, meanwhile, was a 59-1 victor in a game that saw Nsami players score 41 own-goals.
The attention-grabbing finals did just that, causing the league to investigate.
“When the teams had previously met in March, the scorelines were considerably more sober with Matiyasi beating Mighty Birds 2-1 while Dangerous Tigers drew 2-2 with Happy Boys,” Vincent Ram-phago, president of the Mopani region, told BBC Sport.
Ramphago, the chairman of the region’s competitions committee, found that officials issued red cards to Nsami, leaving the club with seven players against Matiyasi and did not properly record several goals.
“We found the referee was just writing ‘player number 2 scored 10 goals, player number 5 scored 20 goals’ and so on,” Ramphago said, “but there were 41 own goals, so how were they recording these?”
Mighty Birds head coach Neil Thwala blamed the egregious match-fixing on his players, alleging they were told referees in a previous game were trying to help Matiyasi.
“In the previous match we played, we were told the referee is part of Shivulane Dangerous Tigers,” he said in a radio interview.
“We scored four goals but all of them were disallowed by the referee but then they hit the side net-ting and the referee said it’s a goal. When we reported the matter, we were told that the referee’s de-cision was final.
“The players’ minds were not on the game because even if they won, they knew it wasn’t going to help them in any way. I tried as a coach to push them but it was difficult — there was nothing I could do.” – sierraloaded.sl/New York Post
Online Reporter