The men defeated Vailoatai Youth 3-1 to win their second title in a row while their female counterparts needed a penalty shootout to overcome Utulei Youth after a thrilling 2-2 draw.
Both finals were played at Pago Park in Pago Pago and produced plenty of goals and other drama for the fans to enjoy.
In the men’s match, Pago Youth A dominated possession and territory in the first half and earned the reward their play had deserved as early as the 13th minute through competition MVP and American Samoa international Rambo Tapui.
It was 2-0 just four minutes after the break when Fitiuta Maiava headed a corner home but Vailoatai bounced back when Ryan Petaia found the net with an impressive side-foot finish.
Any hopes Vailoatai had of getting back into the game were dashed though after Tapui was brought down in the box and Maiava slotted home from the spot in the 77th minute for his second strike of the day.
There was further good news for Pago Youth as the club’s other side, Pago B, won the 3rd/4th playoff against Vaitogi United 3-2 to take bronze.
“The great thing about our team is that the majority of them are some of the top players on our island,” coach and vice-president Ailao Tualaulelei Sr said. “About seven of them have played for the American Samoa national team so I didn’t have to worry too much about how good they are.
“It has been a great year and I want to thank all the teams that participated for making it such a good one. There are a lot of good up-and-coming teams so it is not going to get any easier for us.”
There were the same number of goals in the women’s final but the distribution of those strikes was even this time, despite Pago racing into a 2-0 lead by the half-time whistle.
A double from Lynn Tualaulelei had given them that advantage but Pago went on to shoot themselves in the foot in the second period, allowing Utulei back into the contest through an own goal.
Faale Vaoga then completed the comeback with her first ever goal for Utulei to send the game into extra time.
No further goals were scored in the added period but Pago finally earned the right to lift the trophy when Tualaulelei held her nerve to fire home the match-winning spot kick for a 3-2 shootout win.
Tualaulelei is the neice of Pago men’s coach Ailao Tualaulelei, who is also in charge of the women’s team.
“I knew it was going to be a hard battle against Utulei Youth,” he said.
“I told our players that, in order to play this game, they would have to be fit so I asked them to train hard. They showed that fitness by playing a full match and then two extra time periods to give us the championship. My hat goes off to them for a job well done.”
A total of 14 teams competed in the women’s national league this season – the highest number of sides to have taken part in the history of the competition.
For more on American Samoa football go to www.ffas.as

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