Pele hammered Alpha United 3-1 while the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) tamed BK International Western Tigers by a similar margin when the 19th annual Kashif and Shanghai football extravaganza continued on Christmas Day at the Providence National Stadium.
The match between the defending champions Alpha United and Pele was billed as the final of the tournament by football knowledgeable and the match lived up to all expectations, all the pre-match hype.
It was intense, fierce competition from both teams who revelled in playing on a true surface at the world class facility and the large crowd in attendance was treated to some clinical displays of football from some of the better players in the country.
Pele’s attitude on the field spelt W.I.N.N.E.R.S from the shrill blast of the whistle signaling kick-off and they scored two minutes into the game thanks to Linden Phillips.
Pele, boasting Guyana’s ace striker in Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson and national captain Charles “Lilly” Pollard, a defender in the mold of Gordon
`The Ultimate Warrior’ Braithwaite, made things very difficult for `The Hammer’.
Alpha, however, were able to foil several raids on goal by Richardson and would equalise in the 21st minute through Grenada guest player Kithson Bain.
At the end of regulation time the score was tied 1-1 and so the game went to extra period.
Enter, `Jackie Chan.’
With Richardson to the fore, Pele began to terrorize Alpha’s defence and Richardson sent his team ahead from the penalty spot after a team-mate was brought down in the box.
Alpha tried everything in the in the book as they say but came up empty handed and played out the first half of the extra period with Pele up 2-1.
The icing was put on the cake and the crowd was brought to its collective feet by Richardson, whose solo run at the goal started from midfield.
In a display reminiscent of the great Argentine player Diego Maradona, Richardson, dribbled every defender that came in his way evading them with some fancy foot work before he clinically placed the ball at the back of the net to complete his double.
In the opening match of the double header, G.D.F outplayed BK International Western Tigers despite being without striker Dwight Peters who was red carded in their opening game against Bakewell Buxton Stars.
Both sides started well and shared position of the ball evenly and almost had the same number of attempts at goal. Nevertheless, the first half ended 0-0.
The pattern continued in the second period with Tigers’ Devon Millington coming close on several occasions.
But it was the army’s striker Stellon David, who fired in the opening goal of the game in the 72nd minute.
This evidently daunted the spirits of the West Ruimveldt team whose play appeared lackadaisical.
They paid for their halfhearted attitude when Warren Gilkes scored in the 79th minute to double the lead.
Maxwell Pellew’s goal in the 87th minute seemed to revive the Tigers’ spirit but the military men had other plans and taking the Tigers’ by their tails, they finally tamed them with a Marlon Benjamin goal one minute later.
The stage is now set for two more nail-biting matches on December 28. Judging from the performance by the winners of the Christmas Day double header, Pele and the G.D.F, one can rest assured that this will be semi-final encounters one would not want to miss. (Rawle Toney)
