… Alpha, Pele to meet in grudge match for third place
TODAY is Holy Thursday for some, but from 21:00 h tonight, Continental Group of Companies-sponsored Sunburst Camptown and the Guyana Beverages Company (GBC)-sponsored Fruta Conquerors will battle for $1M and one year of bragging rights, in this year’s Mayor’s Cup final at the Georgetown Football Club ground. In the third place playoff, national club champions Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United who defeated Puerto Rico-based River Plate 3-2 to advance to the second round of the Caribbean Football Union Club Championships last Sunday will take on Pele Football Club in what can be deemed a grudge match.
An exhibition encounter featuring New Amsterdam United and the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), the dethroned champions of the tournament, will kick off the night’s proceedings at 17:00 h, followed by the Alpha/Pele encounter – also a replay of the 2010 Kashif and Shanghai final – from 19:00 h.
Even though Fruta Conquerors lost the services of their custodian Oswald Cornette to their opponents for tonight’s final, they still have the much more reliable Colin Edwards between the uprights and along with Lester Peters, Trevon Lythcott, Dellon and Odell Williams, Jolyon Harry, Jomo Hinds and Eon Alleyne, and are favoured to walk away with the top prize.
But Cornette, who endured a miserable run in recent times with his former team before he was replaced by Edwards, kept a clean slate for his new team who defeated Bakewell Buxton and BK International Western Tigers one-nil, followed by a two-nil semi-final defeat over Alpha.
He will not have to worry about his former team mate Vernon Mills harassing his defence with the aim of penetrating his uprights, since the versatile striker is plying his trade in Trinidad and Tobago.
But Edwards, will have to thwart the sporadic efforts of Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington, Troy Prescod, Rishawn Sandiford and Orlando Greaves, if he intends to help his team come out victorious in what can also be described as the battle of the Orange Juice manufacturers and distributors.
If there’s any team who will be brimming with confidence today, it would be Alpha United, who will go into this matchup using it as a training event for their third-round CFU encounter against an opponent yet to be named.
They also defeated Pele 3-2 in the final of the K&S tournament, a victory which can place them in good stead and for this fixture, they can look to national defensive stalwart and skipper Howard Lowe, Shawn Bishop, Kelvin McKenzie, Andrew Murray Jr, Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams and Ronson Williams for victory.
Pele are no pushovers and have proved so time and time again in the local football fraternity and certainly will be looking to do so once again tonight, especially with much at stake against a high-profile team as their opponents.
Konata Manning, Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant, Solomon Austin, Marvin Joseph, Stellon David and Shawn Johnson will all be seeking the revenge victory for their team, especially in the absence of national striker Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson.
President Bharrat Jagdeo has sponsored tonight’s top prize. The second place cheque of $500 000 being sponsored by Body Max while MACORP and the GBC have picked up the tabs for the third- and fourth-placed teams, who will receive $200 000 and $100 000 respectively.
Added incentives include one Jialing motorcycle for the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the final, one television set for the highest goalscorer compliments of Kei-shar’s Gift Shoppe, while A.H.&L Kissoon has agreed to donate one three-piece suite to the best Under-19 player.
Apart from the abovementioned sponsors, this year’s tournament was also sponsored in part by Digicel, Giftland OfficeMax, Bakewell, John Fernandes Limited, RUSAL, BK International, Courtney Benn Contracting Service and the Guyana Lottery Company, just to name a few.