Holiday treat, as Christmas and Boxing Day quarterfinals set for GFC ground

THE GEORGETOWN Football Club (GFC) ground will host the quarterfinals of this year’s Georgetown Football Association (GFA) Banks Beer Cup today and tomorrow (Boxing Day). 

Guyana’s leading club Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United who have so far been the most dominant team in the tournament, will oppose the home boys GFC in the second game of the planned double-header tonight (Christmas Day) with the curtain-raiser bringing together Riddim Squad and Pele.
Tomorrow’s action will see Western Tigers and the resurging Guyana Police Force (GPF) lock horns while Sunburst Camptown face a frightening Guyana Defence Force (GDF) lineup in the other encounter.
Alpha United will be led by the tournament’s leading goalscorer (10) Daniel Wilson and Dwain Jacobs, who sits two goals adrift of Wilson, even as GFC will depend heavily on the exploits of their attacking sensation in guest player Trayon Bobb who is third on the tournament’s goal-scoring list with six, all of which were scored in his side’s 12-0 blitz over Houston Stars.
It will be interesting to see how Bobb matches up against the might of Alpha United’s rock-steady defence that is yet to be penetrated while their offence is so far the best in the tournament, rattling in a record-breaking 34 goals in their group stage encounters.
Can GFC contain Wilson and the likes of Dwight Peters, Kris Camacho and midfield maestro Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant? This question will be answered tonight though the pundits are hoping it would not be answered in the usual way by Alpha United; a team known for blanking their opponents while scoring at well.
The defence of GFC can be porous at times, as revealed by Western Tigers who defeated them 3-0. But when playing at their best, the opposition will have to play air-tight defending to hold off their (GFC) offensive weapons; just ask Houston Stars.
The Riddim Squad/Pele game will be one of uncertainty since it features two teams who have shown that they have championship pedigree.
Sheldon Hope and Amos Ramsey are the Mocha-based team’s leading goalscorers while their defence is capable of withstanding a whirlwind attack by any high-powered opposition such as Pele.
On Boxing Day (December 26) the GPF and the GDF football clubs will attempt to prevent their opponents from advancing further while also hoping to break their jinx of reaching the final.
One would not call the Policemen’s path to the knock-out stage difficult. They were not impressive in their wins over Houston Stars (2-0) and Blackwater (3-0) since those teams are called the minnows of the GFA.
The Army, on the other hand, brushed aside Pele (2-1), crushed Flamingo 6-0 and breezed by Black Pearl 3-1.
Sunburst Camptown; GDF’s opposing team for their game, had an impressive run in the tournament by knocking out last year’s finalists Santos with a 2-1 win then beating Beacon FC 6-1.
The Continental Group of Companies-sponsored team will turn to their leading goalscorer and forward Anthony Sancho to guide them towards the tournament’s $3M first-place prize. GDF, on the other hand, will depend on their all-round team effort to take them to the promised land on January 1.
The second-place team this year will pocket $1.5M, with third-placers taking home $1M and fourth-placers $500 000.

(By Rawle Toney)

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