The Iwaya axis of Yaba, Lagos Mainland was lighted up as the LAB Memorial Football Carnival took the center stage on a day described to be fairly wet.
The LAB Memorial Football Carnival was organised in memory of the late Father, Brother Uncle and family member of the Baloguns, Layiwola Ayinde Balogun.
According to family members, during his life time, he enacted great empowerment, development and motivation to the youth, hence the festival in his honor.
The LAB Memorial Football Carnival, a one day football event which saw four teams battle for one trophy. J-Saves FC, Soccer City FC, Dynamos FC and Mighty Stars made it to this year’s edition of the carnival.
Two semi final matches were played among the four teams which produced two finalist for the day.
The first semi final was between J.saves FC and Soccer City FC and that ended in a 1-1 draw under regulation time and subsequently, went into penalties.
The goal keeper of J. Saves came to the party that evening to save his team as he helped them to a 4-2 penalty win.
The second semi final went down between Dynamos FC and Mighty Stars FC. Just like the first semi final encounter, it ended in a draw under regulation time but this time, was a goalless draw. In a keenly contested encounter, the two teams tipped by hundreds of spectators viewing as the most favorite among the four teams, leaved up to expectations but both teams failed to find the back of the net in 90 minutes as it went into penalties. Mighty Stars advanced via a 4-3 penalty score.
It was a wet final between J-Saves and Mighty Stars as both teams proved their worth of advancing to the finals.
Still, the keenly contested final ended in a barren draw. Mighty Stars, doing what they know how to do best, leaved up to the billings and won 5-4 on penalties.
According to an elder states man and younger brother to LAB, High Chief Ibrahim Ajao Balogun, the Balogun of Yaba Kingdom, stated that the event is going to be an annual event at the Abete sand sand field, venue of the LAB Memorial Football Carnival, has previously produced stars in the past like Alloy Agwu and it will continue to produce more stars. In his words.
” We happen to be sons of the soil as our family will be 100 years in existence in Iwaya community. This is the first edition and we hope to do better in other editions and it’s going to be an annual event. We have so many youth players that have come out of this field and we hope that this competition will bring more players for the country” he concluded.
