Park Central, Brooklyn Marriott blow out the competition and head to semi-finals

Park Central exploded for 4 second half goals to defeat Milford Plaza 4-1 in the opening match of the 2009 Hotel Soccer Playoffs.

Milford Plaza got on the board just before halftime with a penalty kick goal by Nahun Sambula while goalkeeper Nelson Melendez was stellar in the first half with 10 saves (16 for the whole game).

Midway through the second half, Park Central finally evened the score with a Toir Akibaev goal that barely crossed the goal line. Ten minutes later, Pedro Garcia made a spectacular header from 12 yards out to give Park Central its first lead of the contest. Nigel Armstrong added two insurance goals for Park Central to ice the victory.

Raaafat Rohaeim scored the game winner as Mandarin Oriental outdueled Hilton New York in penalty kicks 4-3, to win the 2009 Soccer Championship, 3-2.

As expected, it was an evenly played match from the onset, before Carsten Johannsen one-timed an Adnan Hasanagic feed into the back of the net in the 18th minute, to give Mandarin a 1-0 lead.

Early in the second half, Arturo Ching scored 2 goals within a span of 6 minutes, the second coming off a beautiful header, to give Hilton a 2-1 advantage. However with 10 minutes remaining in regulation, Johannsen scored his 2nd goal of the game off a rebound, to notch the game at 2.

Moments later, Mandarin's Azeddine Achkouri picked up his 2nd yellow card of the match, forcing his team to play the remainder of the match a man down, but Richard Brajic and the Mandarin defense held the high flying Hilton squad in check, allowing just 2 shots on goal in both sudden death overtimes to get the game to the penalty kick stage, where they were victorious.

Mandarin finishes the season with a 9-2-1 record, including a 2-1 edge in matches vs the Hilton this season. In the prior contests, Hilton was victorious 1-0 on May 30th, while Mandarin won the rematch 3-0 on July 11.