NIFA Winter Tournament: Semifinals preview

Bulldogs will face NIFA F.C. in the Haitian Derby as Woodsiders square up with N.Y. Ukranians.

Bulldogs players in a huddle. NIFA F.C. Images

Woodsiders (1st) vs NY Ukrainians (4th)

NY Ukrainians is arguably the best team of the tournament. They finished in first place, scoring 23 more goals than the second placed team, Bulldogs, 61-38. They came back from a two-goal deficit to draw with a redoubtable Bulldogs team in Week 3 with only seven players.

The man in front of their battle line is the league’s top scorer Nicolai Cemschi. Cemschi netted 18 goals in six games. The Ukrainians have two more players in the top scorer standings, top scoring defender Boris Shapoval, who has 10 goals and Vitaliy Firsov who has eight.

NY Ukrainians also have the finest goalkeeper in the league at their disposal, Anatoliy Tataryn. Tataryn holds the best goal against per game ratio, 3.2.

The first placed team’s opponents in the semifinals will be Woodsiders. Woodsiders finished the regular season in the last playoffs position and conceded more goals than they scored, 45-63, however they have two of the most prolific scorers in the tournament, Jules and Danny Leon.

Jules and Leon both sit in third place in the top scorer standings with 11 goals. When Leon joined the league in the third round, he noticeably revitalized the Hispanic side.

Last time the two teams met in the regular season, NY Ukrainians held Woodsiders to their lowest scoring game, defeating them, 8-2. However the first time they versed each other in Round 1, the Queens team inflicted the Ukrainians the most goals they conceded in a game, but fortunately for NY Ukrainians they netted the most goals they scored in a game in that encounter. The scoreline was 18-5.

Bulldogs (2nd) vs NIFA F.C. (3rd)

The second semifinal comes in red and blue as NIFA F.C. and the Bulldogs square up in the Haitian derby. Bulldogs went undefeated in the regular season, NIFA on the other end lost two games—one to the Bulldogs.

When the two sides met earlier in Week 4, the Bulldogs overpowered NIFA, 5-2. Bulldogs forward Kly was the man of the match as he tallied two goals and two assists. The Haitian is the second top scorer of the tournament, scoring 16 goals in five games—just two goals shy of top scorer Nicolai Cemschi.

Kly craves to win the top scorer award but wouldn’t want to do it without a refreshing victory over his Haitian rivals.

The Bulldogs own the best defense in the league, conceding the least goals, 15. Brooklyn College players Teon Chaumette and Jean-Luc Saint-Fleur alongside Ralph Petit-Homme make up the second placed team’s rocky defense.

They managed to hold former Haiti U-23 national player Fernander Demas to one goal when they versed NIFA. Demas has 10 goals to his name in the tournament. He’s fresh of a stellar performance against FFB FC, netting four goals.

Last time they met, the two Haitian teams put up the roughest match we’ve seen all season long, expect a tougher game this Saturday as a more serious matter will be on the line: this encounter will determine which Haitian team will clinch the final.