FORMER Technical Director of the Guyana Football Federation Jamal Shabazz, who left Guyana for his home in Trinidad and Tobago yesterday, and former national player and coach Ivan Persaud both gave their impressions and thoughts on the just concluded hard-fought 3-2 win by Alpha United over Pele in the 21st Kashif and Shanghai football championship.
The epic final, which was seen by a crammed 15 000-capacity plus crowd at the Guyana National Stadium, Providence, was played on New Year’s Day.
Shabazz first told Chronicle Sport that “it was easily one of the best football matches, one of the most entertaining and exciting football matches that I have witnessed at any level of the game. It revived my passion for Guyana and made me feel really good that the country is progressing along positive lines”.
The Trinbagonian continued “I thought that Pele played with more flair but failed to translate chances into goals and it cost them the match.
“Also when they scored (Pele), they tactically did not try to boost the defensive action but they just continued attacking in the same way and playing in the same way. It was Carnival-style free-flowing attacking football, but this does not always bring the result, it brings entertainment.
“When they went 2-1 up they could have played off the counterattack because they had fast and skilful players in Richardson and Millington who were capable of attacking the Alpha back four, but they continued to play open, and Alpha, credit to them, played much more as a unit with less individual flair and more organisation. I think it was a great game for Guyana and I think it was a great game for Guyana’s football.”
Looking at the game before the final Shabazz said, “Well, I always knew it was going to be a close game. It could have gone either way and Pele should still hold their heads high. Both coaches have done a wonderful job and the players must also be commended for the passion and the energy shown so I am very proud of them and I was proud to be Guyanese yesterday. My heart is Guyanese,” Shabazz concluded.
Persaud, who coaches soccer in England, commented that “first it is eleven versus eleven and who score more goals win. The first aspect you got to look at is who created more opportunities. Then, who had possibilities of scoring. Pele had more possibilities of scoring but they didn’t finish.
“It comes down to the finishing right there. If Pele had finished they would have won the game like say 5- or 6-3, because ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson had an excellent opportunity, one against one with the keeper, the keeper on one post, he attacking at an angle on the keeper’s left post, the keeper came out, didn’t cut his angle properly and Jackie Chan tried to beat him in the same top corner instead of shooting across his body to the next corner, so he missed.
‘Bubbly’ Beveney, instead of drilling the ball into the goal, one against one with the keeper he tried to pat in a corner nice and he patted it outside of the post. So right away you see the inability to finishing in front of the goal,” the former Upper-Demerara and national player explained.
Persaud also noted “next thing, the teams were playing too narrow, meaning they were not utilising the width of the pitch, because if you are going to switch a play from the left to right you have got to let the man who will receive the change ball receive the ball as wide as possible on the line so that you will force the opposition defenders to come across really wide to force you out from not going straight down the line.
“As you get them to come across it means that you shift the defence and you have to punish the defence and move them one side and drag them out, just try to move them out of position,” Persaud emphasised.
He added, “That was the problem of the game and Guyana’s football. I think Alpha United had a better overall team play as Pele were depending on Jackie Chan and Devon Millington and they were doing all of the attacking plays.”
He noted “There were no overlapping plays and one of the times when Charlie Pollard tried to overlap, it was then that the last goal was scored.“
Pollard played a ball out to the midfield player and because the midfield player did not receive it wide outside on the line it gave Pollard an opportunity to overlap so he went into that space/channel on the outside and then a man confronted him and he made a pass and the pass was to go over the top to Pollard to continue the run, but this did not happen over the top, as the attempt was made into the space and the ball was cut off and one ball forward, two balls forward and boom, goal.
Where was Pollard? Out of position, overlapping”
According to Persaud, “Whenever the man overlaps, you have to make sure the man gets the ball. He was way down on the right wing calling for the ball, but the man tried to give him the ball in the space and not over the top.
“You have to make sure the man is running behind the ball, hit it over him. If he loses the ball it will go for a throw in. In that position he attempted to play to Pollard’s foot and in that position you have to play over the top because the defence comes in with anticipation to go in front of the player.
Pollard was running forward and if the ball does not come quickly to his feet it is easier for the person to intercept and steal since the defender sees that the ball is coming soft.”
However Persaud said, “It was really an exciting game because you had five goals and it did not come down to penalty kicks.
One of the things is I think Pele thought that they could have won it in 90 minutes and as soon as Charles Pollard went out of position, on the right wing, he tried to overlap; he understands what is overlapping but he did not get the ball.
“You have to make sure the man who overlaps and makes the run gets the ball. If you are going to do a disguise play, irrespective of who makes the run in the other side you have got to make sure that they get the ball, because if they don’t you have to remember that two players are out of position. That is where Alpha punished them, put it back right where Charles Pollard came out from and boom goal.”
Pele’s Coach, Gordon ‘Ultimate Warrior’ Brathwaite was disappointed but said “we played really well but we failed to capitalise on the many chances that we gained. That was a trend in the whole tournament. We just created opportunities and gave away a lot giving the other teams a boost. With Alpha you can’t be missing goals.
They are a very good team and any good team will find a way to win. They soaked up all the pressure and if we were scoring all the opportunities we got we could have demoralised them, but we were not doing it. Look at the last goal, it was clinical finishing with a counterattack and they scored. We gave it away, we played well but we failed to convert the many chances that we made,” lamented Brathwaite.
Looking at the third goal for Alpha Brathwaite said, “The basic football is if a central defender moves, you got to bring him into the game, especially an experienced man like Charles Pollard, because if he leaves, he knows a hole is there so when you give him the ball, the onus is on him to protect.”
Brathwaite maintained that “if he (Pollard) had gotten the ball nothing like what happened would have happened.
The guy chose to try a next option and it failed, it is a simple mistake. He failed to play to the centre half (Pollard) and the ball was intercepted and with the centre half already moved so you cannot blame Pollard. Pollard should have gotten the ball, but the game didn’t turn on one play. We threw away too many chances to blame the defensive player.
Our team played well, everybody was wishing for a Pele/Alpha final and it happened, the game lived up to the hype. The players performed on both teams, it is only a score-line loss and it is not a ‘jokey’ team. It was a very good team we played in Alpha United,” Brathwaite stated.
His student, Alpha United‘s coach Wayne ‘Wiggy‘ Dover, told Chronicle Sport “had we not taken our chances we would have been on the receiving end,’ He related, “From the very first time I joined Alpha in 2006, the crowd has always been against us and it is just normal for us to play against the crowd. I have no qualm with how they feel against us.”
He said, “We had identified the ability of Pele with their individual plays but I implored our players of the need to stay organised if we are to come out of this game on top.
“Once we converted the chances we created we had to prevail. I said before the team that make the least mistakes and the team that scores the chances on the night will win the match. We scored three of the chances we had and that was quite sufficient to take us to the championship.
He remarked that “our plan was to pull Pollard out and he is a dominating figure and we said to Grenadian striker Bithson Bain, ‘try to get him out of his position to open the space’ and we sent people to occupy and penetrate.”
Dover admitted, “fortunate for us Pollard did come out and we exploited that space to the fullest and we succeeded in one of our plans for the night.”