IT was different strokes for the 12 qualifying teams in the knock out stage of the Gulder Five-A-Side competition as the second round of the competition kicked off with much excitement. While some saw their dream of winning the competition end, others took their aspirations a step further.The games, holding at the indoor Hall of the National Institute of Sports, NIS, and Gymnasium hall of the National Stadium, Lagos lived up to expectations as teams slugged it out for tickets for the next round.At the end of the first round of games, Network FC of Port Harcourt from the South-South zone beat Campus FC of Oleh, winners of the Mid-West Zone while D Royal FC of Lagos Zone beat Ultimate FC, winners of the South-East zone.Mandiba FC, runners up in the South-West Zone, came from behind to defeat Port Harcourt City FC, winners of the South-South zone by 2-1. Sheriff FC, winners of the South-West zone joined the list of winners after the team beat St. Etienne from the South-East zone by 2-1.Supreme FC, winners of the North Central Zone also won their game after they thrashed Apex FC, runners up of the Mid-West Zone 4-1 with Msuph Orungu grabbing a hat trick for the Gboko based side.However, the game of the day was the 7- 1 demolition of Gidan Bege FC by TK Academy, winners of the Lagos Zone qualifiers.The match saw Kehinde Ishola scoring five goals to top the scorers chart in the competition. It was a disappointing result for Gidan Bege, the Cinderella team made up of inmates from an orphanage.The team surprised pundits to emerge the second best team during the North Central Zone qualifiers.With these results from the first round of matches, TK Academy FC, Mandiba FC and D Royal FC II all of Lagos along with Sherriff FC of Ijebu Ode, Network FC of Port Harcourt and Supreme FC of Gboko have made it to the next stage of the competition.The national coach of the Five-A-Side national team, Coach Oladunni Oyekale, who was present during the event, gave a special pep talk to the boys. He encouraged all the teams to put in their best while stressing that they had a chance to feature for the national Five-A-Side team if they do well enough in the competition.'I want you all to have fun and put in your best because I am not just here to watch you, I will also pick the outstanding players amongst you. This could be your chance to break into the National Gulder-Five-A-Side team,' he stated.Also speaking was Coach Kehinde Ishola, manager of TK Academy, who was obviously delighted at the team's performance, promised that the team would surmount all odds to emerge winners of the competition.The eventual winner of the competition will get the whopping sum of N5m while the first and second runners up will get N2m and 1m naira respectively.
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