By Kizan Brumell
Following two days of keen competition in the third annual Inter Guiana Club Football Championship currently being played at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, three of the four competing teams were still in with a chance of winning the tournament.
At the conclusion of yesterday’s second day, Alpha United were still in the lead with four points from one win and a draw.
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and Inter Moengotapoe are on two points from two draws each while Geldar de Kourou have one point from a draw and a loss.
Tomorrow at 2pm, Geldar will face GDF before Alpha United engage Suriname’s Inter Moengotapoe in the feature match.
Alpha will need a win to secure the tournament if GDF manages to get past Geldar.
However, if the Suriname team happens to defeat Alpha United, they will need to do so by at least two goals to win on goal difference in the event GDF also wins.
Yesterday, the GCC arena witnessed two nail biting draws.
In the opening match, Inter Moengotapoe played to a 1 – 1 draw with Geldar de Kourou while in the second match, GDF came from behind to draw with Alpha United 2 – 2.
In the opening game, the French Guiana and Suriname teams played clustered football in midfield which resulted in several changes of possession.
Suriname took the lead compliments of Dima Steven who took full advantage of a free kick outside the 18-yard box in the 33rd minute.
His kick was misjudged by the goalkeeper and swung into the net as the Suriname players began celebrating.
In the second half both teams began to use the open spaces more effectively but Geldar just could not find the equalizer nor could Inter Moengotapoe extend their lead.
In the final minute of the second half Geldar were awarded a penalty after a player was adjudged to have handled the ball in the box.
Rhudy Evens made no mistake tucking the ball into the back of the net even as the opposition custodian got his finger tips to it.
The feature match between the two top local teams saw Alpha United going ahead in the 32nd minute from a goal mouth scrimmage after winning a corner kick on the left flank.
The kick, a terrific one, was taken by Shawn Bishop and resulted in three denied attempts before Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams comfortably tucked the ball into the back of the net for his second goal of the tournament.
Not long after GDF’s Delroy Deen stormed down the left flank and delivered a lovely cross that raced past Alpha’s goalkeeper but Telston McKinnon and Marlon Benjamin were milliseconds late in support.
Abrams then made his presence felt again in the 42nd minute when he stormed forward in support and followed up on a blocked shot to toggle the scoreboard and record his third goal.
GDF were able to pull one back with the introduction of Warren Gilkes in the second half as he raced down the left flank while being closely marked and fired a flat hard shot that gave Williams no chance to get down to an save.
Alpha’s defensive line led by captain, Howard Lowe with support from Solomon Austin and Chris Camacho withered under the constant attack of GDF’s massive striking force of McKinnon, Gilkes, Stellon David, Peter Parks and Marlon Benjamin.
The equaliser came when David worked his way down the right flank and executed a great lob over four defenders that found Gilkes who made no mistake with his first touch blasting the ball straight through the hands of Williams to put them back in contention for the Cup.
