– Santos, Pele walk plank
Tournament hosts Alpha ‘the Hammer’ United and their Georgetown counterpart Sunburst Camptown, will clash in the final of the Alpha United Carifesta $2.2M football tournament after recording victories over Santos and Pele football clubs respectively at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground, Sunday night.
In the first game of the night’s double header, Alpha maintained their supremacy over Santos with a commanding 3-1 victory while Camptown had to pull out all the stops to defeat Pele 3-2 on penalty kicks in an exciting match-up.
The Alpha/Santos clash was the perfect appetizer for the night’s feature match, as both teams displayed a high level of football.
Alpha was the first team to ink their name on the scorer’s sheet when Elton Browne, who has been struggling with his form recently, found the back of the net in the 15th minute.
But Santos refused to let up, and were awarded a penalty four minutes later when Alpha’s defence player Alvin Mc Kenzie handled the ball in the box.
The ensuing kick taken by captain Seon Mc Kenzie found the back of the net and after 45 minutes of intense football, the scores were locked one all at lemon time.
Second half action was no different than the first, with both teams looking to go ahead but some strong defensive work from both sides, along with some debatable calls from the man in the middle, thwarted them.
Santos had the opportunity to snatch the initiative, but Adrian Payne’s shot went wide while at the other end of the field, Alpha’s Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams, who got a helmet-trick in their quarter-final win over Rosignol United was brought down inside the box, but to the dismay of Alpha’s supporters, the referee waved play on.
Shawn ‘Fatso’ Bishop, who played his last game as a Golden Jaguar on home soil against Suriname in the Digicel Caribbean Cup, beat advancing Santos custodian O’Neil Heywood in the 84th minute, following a cross from Leon Grumble, that put Alpha ahead once more.
That goal revived Alpha as Bishop forced Heywood to effect another save two minutes later, but the wind was knocked out of Santos’ sails when Browne got his second goal of the night and a well deserved one also.
He had received a pass from no other than Grumble, and after eluding his marker, made his way into the box and sent his shot while on the run.
It was such a powerful one that Heywood failed to gather cleanly and Browne himself out-sprinted the defence to slot the rebound home in the 88th minute.
The score, which read 3-1 in favour of Alpha, remained unchanged at the final whistle ensuring that the host would contest the final of the inaugural tournament.
The Pele/ Camptown clash lived up to expectations with high intensity football by both teams.
Pele had the opportunity to go ahead when Rensford Coolridge’s header from a Keoma Gravesande cross went wide with Camptown’s custodian Richie Richards well beaten.
At the other end of the field, Camptown’s Lance Rolston, who was deputizing as captain in the absence of Orlando Gilgeous (out with the flu) missed a certain goal following a cross from Marvin Joseph who was having a gem of a night.
It was clear that Gilgeous’ absence was being felt by Camptown, especially at the back as Devon Dummett, who is a defensive stalwart in that position, was having a miserable night while Rolston not only had the pressure of the captaincy to contend with, but also the scoring of goals.
He should have sent his team ahead three minutes from lemon time after outrunning his marker following a pass from Rishawn Sandiford, who was working overtime in tandem with Joseph, Dexter Mollyneaux and Troy Prescod.
But once again Rolston over-dribbled the ball and Pele custodian Shemroy Arthur effected the save to ensure the score sheets remained clean at lemon time.
Pele was the first to take the lead in the second half when Dummett’s clearance from a goal mouth scrimmage struck Coolridge, who was stationed right in front the goal in his chest and ricocheted to the back of the net.
Following that goal, Pele’s Gravesande, Dirk Archer and Solomon Austin were forced to work overtime to prevent Mollyneaux, Prescod, Joseph and at times Sandiford from snatching the equalizer, with Austin having to intercept numerous passes intended for Joseph or Mollyneaux from Prescod.
But as the saying goes, ‘all good things must come to an end’ and that was the case for Archer and company at the back when Collis Tinnie, who was a first half substitute for Quason Winter, out-sprinted his marker and scored after receiving a pass from Dummett.
Neither team was able to snatch the initiative at fulltime and even though Pele were reduced to 10 men following the ejection of Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant for a second bookable offence, Camptown still found it difficult to find the back of the net both in regulation and extra time.
It then came down to penalty kicks and after both Prescod (Camptown) and Austin (Pele) missed their chances, Coolridge and Rolston converted.
Arthur took the next kick for Pele and beat his opposite counterpart Richards with a well placed shot, but when he took to the goal, he too was beaten by Sandiford.
It was a tense moment as the scores were level with two more kicks to be taken.
Joseph stepped up but his shot went wide which meant the pressure was on Pele’s Gravesande to snatch the initiative, but Richards had other ideas and effected a save.
The diminutive Mollyneaux calmly found the back of the net to put Camptown ahead and when Richards pulled off a magnificent save from Archer’s shot, pandemonium broke out at 23:30hrs at the GFC ground as Camptown not only booked their place in the final, but also maintained their supremacy over their Georgetown counterparts.
The final will be played at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence on Sunday from 21:00hrs. It will be preceded by the Pele/Santos third place clash and with $1M up for grabs as the first place prize, it could be anybody’s game.
