By Fiifi Anaman at the Accra Sports Stadium
This was a semi final that was worth its salt. And it was characterized by something perculiar too.
Total football was what it was. Players interchanged positions seamlessly: defenders turning to strikers, wingers becoming center midfielders, strikers becoming wingbacks. The movement was confusing but exciting, frequent but effective. They were everywhere, and everyone fitted in any given position at any given time. And their passing was flawless too, complementing the interpositional play, making it an orgasmic sight. Feyenoord were proving they were indeed a team with Dutch links.
The Gomoa-Fetteh-based Academy's control of the game was as beautiful as it was jaw dropping.
In it's effortless fluidity, it had grace, finesse, intelligence and athleticism. It was exhilirating and it was entertaining.
For close to 30 minutes, Inter Allies were chasing the ball whilst their opponents passed them around. If Inter Allies thought they had patented an attractive style of play, they had met their match. Heck, they had met their masters. They were being beaten to their own game, and it was glaring and painful.
The first half saw end to end intrigue without goals. Feyenoord came closest to a goal when front-man Samuel Tetteh failed to beat Allies' goalkeeper Osei Kwame in a one on one from seven yards.
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They would pay for the miss. Three minutes after the break, Inter Allies stole a goal. The dimunitive left footed play maker George Asamoah found himself 15 yards out from Feyenoord's goal following a quick counter attack and hit a feeble, misdirected shot across goal which made him look like he had squandered the opportunity. But he hadn't. Striker Abdul Fatawu Safiu, Inter Allies' top scorer across all competitions this season, typically found himself at the right place at the right time and he got on the end of the shot to tap in.
Feyenoord were all guns blazing after the goal, attacking with more urgency, nervousness and anxiety showing. They looked wild and determined, starving Inter Allies off the ball. Their hard work almost landed them an equalizer on 59 minutes when winger Zalaria Mumuni's cross was met by Samuel Tetteh, whose shot from just outside the box struck the upright.
Five minutes later, Tetteh set up partner Gideon Waja but he wasted a vital chance to pull his side level, shooting over the bar albeit with his weaker left foot. Four minutes later, Waja hit the upright again after another Mumuni pass. The ball fell back to him and his second shot met a pool of Inter Allies bodies on the half way line. In what was a few seconds of madness in Allies' six yard box, there was a third shot, Mumuni striking it this time with his left foot, which also rattled the upright. Three times the upright had denied them, and it was looking like it was not going to be their day.
But they kept attacking. By this time, they had totally wrestled control of the game from Inter Allies and the fans were loving every bit of it. Everything about their buildup was brilliant but they lacked the most important thing of all : they lacked the cutting edge.
Captain Charles Amoah was in the heart of all their attacks. An excellent leader, he was a noticeable microcosm of the whole team. Arguably the man of the match, the Philip Lahm-looking utility player had worked tirelessly and played at least five different positions in the course of the game. He found himself with a golden opportunity to snatch a last minute equalizer two minutes from time after wriggling his way into the Inter Allies box, but he failed to beat Osei Kwame in the ensuing one on one. Kwame, alongside his upright, seemed to be milking mother luck's obvious smile on them.
It was a tense final few minutes as Feyenoord kept pushing. Their white coach, John Killer, stood akimbo, monitoring with anticipation as the fans in the stadium threw their voices behind his exciting charges. In injury time, Tetteh sent in a low cross, the fans roaring in anticipation as they sat on tenterhooks, but Waja, who met the cross, failed to convert, only managing to find the arms of Kwame in goal.
Inter Allies held on till referee Seidu Bomison blew his final whistle. Their players, led by captain Seidu Dabo - who had been a consequential rock on the day - gathered in the center circle and proceeded to run across the pitch to their own goal, clapping as they thanked their fans emotionally. It has been a long, surreal season for the Temabased side. What started off with utter disaster seems to be heading towards bliss in the end.
Coach Herbert Addo's men had been totally outplayed by Feyenoord's brilliant young team. They had been dwarfed by Feyenoord's show of tactical and technical perfection. But all that didn't matter at the end of the grueling game. After all was said and done, they had done what mattered most. They had won. And they had made it to the 2014 MTN FA Cup final.
Feyenoord XI: Theophilus Jackson Joseph Amoah (c), Lassana Coulibaly (Charles Boateng 60'),
Ibrahim Abukari, Richmond Lamptey Mumuni Zakaria, Christian Nkrumah,Wonkoye Mohammed
(Iddrisu Kato 78'), Martin Antwi Gideon Waja, Samuel Tetteh
Inter Allies XI: Osei Kwame Ibrahim Alhassan, Diawudeen Seidu Dabo (c), Dauda Diop, Patrick
Kpodo (Akwei Wahab 86') Ndiaye Talla, Sarbah Lawson, Niare Benogo, Frederick Yamoah
(Frederick Agyemang 86') George Asamoah (Seheriff Mohammed 71') Abdul Safiu