Historic Beach Soccer League Explodes In Accra

The maiden Beach Soccer League in Ghana, officially known as the CAL Bank Premier Beach Soccer League, kicked off at the La Beach Soccer Arena in Accra, with some spectacular goals, individual brilliance and stunning results much to the delight of officials from Cal Bank, Voltic, La Beach management, sports ministry and the GBSA organizers including newly elected President and his executives. The first week of action in the premier league saw a total of 30 goals with Sunset Sports Club from Keta recording the highest conversions in their 8-3 thriller against Accra based Layoca. In the opening league game between Wuo Gbee of La and Ada Assurance, seven goals were produced including the first ever hat-trick scored by Richard Osa as he helped his side Wuo Gbee come back from a goal down to beat Ada Assurance 4 - 3. Attoh Kwabena opened the scoring for Assurance but his celebrations were short lived as Osa equalized with the first of his hat-trick goals. In a thrilling end to end encounter, Totimeh Tetteh and Nathaniel Abaya got the other goals for Assurance while Samuel Adjei grabbed the winning for Wuo Gbee. The second match of the day between Tegbi Youth from Keta and East Legon Sharks was a very close encounter after Daniels Nyador’s neat opener for the Voltarians. However the match was finally settled with a lucky goal from Enoch Sowah that took a bounce in the sand before crashing into the net to hand a 2-1 victory to East Legon Sharks. Ceaser Zehe had earlier cancelled the opening goal by Tegbi youth. In arguably the most fierce and entertaining match of the day, the pride of Dansoman and hot favourites DC Beach Soccer Club, winners of the Unity Cup match in the Central region were out muscled and out classed by the highly disciplined Mighty Warriors from Havedzi in the Volta region. Few could have predicted the final score line of of 4-1 as there was very little to choose between the two sides in the first half including a missed penalty by Dansoman. In the second half, drama unfolded as Sampson Kudado grabbed a quick brace while Aziz Kofi and Delicious Kwawu added two goals to make it 4-1 for the Keta side who drew the biggest crowd and cheers at the arena. Ransford Lamptey got the only goal for the DC boys. Some of the beach players cooling off after a tiring session More drama was to follow in the next game with four goal hero Sema Michael, the toast of fans by leading Sunset Sports from Keta on a 8-3 demolition of local side Layoca from La. Player manager Nii Laaye Boney and Seth Odartei Lankai fought hard for Layoca but their combined goals were not enough to save the ‘home team’ from the ruthless strike force of Sunset Sports who were simply superb on the afternoon. Apart from the four goals from Sema Michael, a brace from Julius Ceasar Beckley and a goal apiece from Etse Ambrose and Doe Newlove sealed an emphatic victory for the boys from the impressive and well organized team from Keta. The last game of the opening weekend in the Cal Bank Premier League produced a few more records as Osu Dolphins defender Ebenezer Nortey scored the league’s first ever own-goal to gift Senya Bereku Sharks from the Central region a lead they never relinquished. Poor goalkeeping from the Osu Dolphins keeper handed the Sharks their second goal when a feeble attempt from Emmanuel Barns passed through the legs of the goal stopper to double the lead for Sharks. When Mohammed Osama pulled one back for the Dolphins, the pace picked up dramatically but a third goal from Isaac Akroful put the Sharks back in the driving seat. There was to be yet another late surge by the Dolphins resulting in a clever goal by Sunday Larry but it was too little, too late for the glamorous Osu side as they lost by 3 goals to 2. No official protests were made during the first week of matches. For a relatively new sport to break into the zone of competitive and organized beach soccer league is highly commendable and the GBSA has appealed to more corporate bodies to join in the development of beach soccer into a national and international brand.