Georgetown Football Association’s (GFA) premier league champions, Alpha United, will be looking to capture their second title in a month when they battle with the Guyana Defence Force in theNamilco knockout Football Festival final this evening at the Tucville Playfield.
The final promises to be an exciting clash with the hard-running army boys looking to stop the skilful Alpha United side who are on a high.
Alpha United’s side will include in-form strikers Quincy Madramootoo and Elton Brown, with Sean Bishop and Andrew Murray (Jr). marshalling the midfield while the defenders will include Philbert Moffatt, Rudian Thomas and Gordon Henry with Sean Johnson as the goalkeeper.
The soldiers, who just missed relegation in the city’s premier league are in top physical shape and will be pinning their hopes of on Keith Fraser (goalkeeper), Devon Harris and Jerome Richard in defence, Seon Hector at midfield with Stellon David and Desford Williams on the striking line.
Both teams were extended into extra time in their semi-final matches, with Alpha scoring a 2-1 win over BV Triumph United of East Coast Demerara, while GDF got the better of Pouderoyen of West Demerara 3-1 in another hard fought match that went into extra time.
BV Triumph United held the Georgetown champions at bay for 60 minutes of play before Madramootoo netted Alpha United opening goal in the 61st minute.
However, Delroy Deen, one of the players in the hunt for the leading goal scorer prize netted the equaliser for the East Coast side in the 70th minute.
At the end of regulation time the two were locked at 1-1 forcing extra time and once again Alpha lethal midfield player Bishop found the back of the net in the 119th minute of play from a direct free kick.
A similar situation ensued in the second semi-final match between the GDF and Pouderoyen when Desford Williams sent the Army into the lead in the 7th minute of play but three minutes before half time Clement Brown equalised for the West Demerara side and the score remained unchanged at the end of regular time.
The Army struck twice in extra time with Stellon David scoring one minute into the session and Sherwin Arthur put the issue beyond doubt when he found the back of the net in the 110th minute.
The two losing semi-finalists BV Triumph United and Pouderoyen will clash for third place in the first match of this evening’s double header at 18:00 hours.
Managing Director of National Milling Company (Namilco) Bert Sukhai and Operations manager German-national Ralf Hemsing will be one hand to kick off the final and assist in the distribution of prizes.
The winners will capture a first prize of $400,000, with the runners-up taking home $200,000, third place $100,000 and fourth place $50,000.
The highest goal scorer will receive a gold chain valued $50,000 donated by Juniors Jewellery, the most valuable player (MVP) will receive $25,000 donated by 2Js General Store, Swansea will donate a cellular phone to the best goalkeeper while Global Technology will offer two computer scholarships young promising players.
Alpha Hotel at Agricola will present a Jumbo hamper to the captain of the most disciplined team.
Namilco will distribute 200 hampers to the players of the four teams competing in tonight’s matches.
A similar amount of hampers were presented by Namilco Finance Controller Auto Lakeram at Friday’s semi-finals.
Namilco has pumped $1.5 million into this year’s Festival organised by Conquerors football Club.
Proceeds of the tournament will go towards the development of the Tucville Playfield.
