By S. Siapha Mulbah
Lofa County has closed the winning gap established between them and Nimba in their 2-1-win during the semifinal of the 2023/2024 National County Meet at the Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex.
Both teams were paired for the semifinal after moving through the preliminaries and winning their separate fixtures at the quarterfinal stage against Bomi and Grand Gedeh Counties.
Yesterday, this year’s most anticipated County Meet match was staged at the national stadium where Nimba county fell to defeat, ending their quest for a trophy defense.
After just 11 minutes of the first half, Emmanuel King Sieh, the County Meet’s Most Valuable Player from Nimba County, drove from nearly 25 meters away from the post with the ball and created a scoring opportunity, assisting Josiah Cea, who was in the goal area of Lofa, to beat goalkeeper James Ndaye and find the back of the net. The goal put the defending champions in front, as they led for more than 20 minutes.
With growing defending and attacking tactics, both teams played with the entire stadium in suspense, till Alvin Quarva found the equalizer on 32 minutes. Again, the equalizing goal for Lofa was another classic one that grew the momentum of the game and brought light to the players of both sides.
Cea of Nimba and Quarva of Lofa’s one goal each, set the game at equilibrium for the halftime. Restless, the two semifinalists went to the dressing rooms under tension of expectation, and got back to the pitch with focus to win in the last quarter.
The Lofian captain, James Tarpeh, came through for his county in the 70th minute, causing a threat to his opponents through a long cross that caused the Nimba County goalkeeper, Titus Blake, to bring him down wrongfully in the penalty box.
The penalty was taken and converted by Heaven Eleven midfielder, Jargay Konneh, after he cleverly shot the ball, beating the Nimba goalie. From the time of the penalty, the game tooka frantic turn, with the two teams missing clear cut chances. There was no longer perfect finishing for Lofa that depended on Jeremiah Johnson with perfect passes, but were loose on wide and missed kicks.
Emmanuel Sieh, Marlue Johnson, and Mohammed Keita, were also missing Nimba County’s possible chances on the other end. The match ended 2-1 in favor of Lofa, to the utter dismay of the Nimba faithful.
The fulltime result served as a form of revenge for Lofa against Nimba after losing to them in last year’s final, as Nimba won its sixth trophy in a 3-1 victory.
Lofa County will, this Sunday, May 5, 2024, face River Gee County in the final of the 2023/2024 County Meet. River Gee was the first team this year to get a final spot after defeating Grand Bassa County 2-0 on Wednesday.
