Tarxien win Mosta Tournament

In front of the biggest crowd yet at the Charles Abela Memorial Stadium, Tarxien Rainbows won the ‘Gammari’ Muscat’ Mosta Tournament as they defeated Pietà Hotspurs 2-0 in the final.

Tarxien were the favourites to lift the trophy and they did not disappoint. Although the Hotspurs played a good match, Tarxien were a superior outfit with their foreign players again taking the limelight. In the end it was men against boys, literally, considering the average age of the Pieta side which surely did not exceed 22 years.

On the other hand, the Rainbows are now an established top-six Premier League side. They deserved their win and deservedly went into the lead after 17 minutes when the tournament top scorer Cristiano Dos Santos Rodrigues pounced on a Sheldon Grech error to fire home and put his side 1-0 up.

Although Pieta made a reaction, they never troubled the Tarxien defence and the goalkeeper was hardly tested.

Early in the second half Everton Antonio Pereira scored a brilliant free-kick to practically kill the match. Now Rainbows had full control of the match and when Referee Alan Mario Sant blew the final whistle, they were worthy winners in a tournament that saw them win all their five matches.

After the match, Tarxien were presented with the winners trophy by the Hon. Charlo’ Bonnici in the presence of Mosta FC President George Galea, and every player was awarded a winners’ medal. There were also trophies for all participating teams as well as the officials who refereed the match.

Cristiano Dos Santos Rodrigues won the Top Scorer award with eight goals, while promising Zurrieq FC forward Daniel Zammit was chosen as the Best Player of the tournament.

In the final for 3rd and 4th Place, Lija Athletic beat Zurrieq 5-1.

Wayne Borg St. John and Antoine Sacco scored two each with Andre Scicluna adding another. Klinsmann Grech scored a consolation goal for Zurrieq.

All in all it was a very successful tournament that was played in a great atmosphere on the new artificial grass pitch.