Pele and Sunburst Camptown Football Clubs filled the last two semifinal spots of the 21st Kashif and Shanghai tournament Monday night when they defeated their opponents in the quarterfinals at the Guyana National Stadium.
In the opening encounter, Sunburst Camptown ousted defending champions BK International Western Tigers 3 – 2 while Pele recorded a 2 – 0 victory over Santos FC in the second game of the double header.
Fans witnessed 90 minutes of repetition in the main feature as Pele once again displayed their inability to consistently finish while Santos also had opportunities to score but just could not capitalize on them.
Monday night’s crowd might not have been the biggest crowd to attend the event so far but Pele and Santos contested a tough first half even though no goal was scored.
After the 15-minute lemon time break, the game picked up right where it left off with Pele’s captain Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, who was his normal `cool, calm and collected’ self kept assisting fellow striker Devon Millington but Millington just could not get the ball into the back of the net.
He was finally able to score in the 47th minute after another assist from Richardson and he duly blasted the ball past the custodian.
In the third minute of extra time, Richardson was finally able to score after having many opportunities earlier in the game.
In the opening game, the defending champions were put on the back foot as early as the 12th minute when Camptown’s Devon Forde found the back of the net.
The teams shared possession and traded shots on goal for most of the first half until Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington scored the first of his two goals in the 37th minute from a free kick taken just about four yards on top of the 18-yard box.
Tigers trailing by two goals at the half time whistle then found themselves down by three goals when Codrington got past the defense and clinically finished in the 48th minute.
However, like true champions, the Tigers battled on and was able to pull one back in the 75th minute when the belligerent Nedd Fraser scored. Two minutes later Lorenzo Duesbury made it a one possession game when he scored.
Camptown, though under fire, was able to withstand the Tigers’ attacks until the final whistle to scrape into the next round.
