IT was a tough start for the Guyanese teams in this year’s Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championship as both sides lost to the visitors in their Group two matches at the Guyana National Stadium last evening. The day’s double-header got under way with Linden’s Milerock suffering a 1-2 loss to Curacao’s Hubentut Fortuna then the night wrapped up with Alpha United once again falling to their rival InterMoengotapoe 1-0.
Tomorrow the action continues at the same venue at 16:00hrs as Milerock face InterMoengotapoe in the curtain-raiser of the double-header, in which host Alpha United will face Hubentut Fortuna from 18:00hrs.
In last night’s feature game, the Surinamese played more constructive football in the one-sided affair as their passes were on point, defence was resolute and attacks were well organised. Alpha United, on the other hand, were not decisive in their passing game, had numerous unforced turnovers and were inconsistent with their cohesion.
In the first half, the sides played matching football but Alpha experimented with shifting positions and paid dearly. In the 23rd minute, Quincy Madramootoo, who normally plays midfield but played defence last night, fumbled a ball which developed into the opposition’s first chance.
The Alpha defender was eventually stripped in their 18-yard box as InterMoengotapoe had numbers coming forward to successfully overpower the defence and draw first blood compliments of Stefan Russel who blasted the ball past Richard Renolds the goalkeeper.
The match continued with the score at 1-0 straight into the second half where the home side found themselves faltering even more in search of the equaliser. Pressure began to mount in the Alpha camp as chances decreased either through bad passing or inability to find the final touch.
As if that wasn’t bad enough for Alpha, they were reduced to ten men when Dwight Peters received a red card in the 76th minute for a foul challenge.
Alpha had one last chance to equalise two minutes to regulation time when Dwain Jacobs received a ball in the opposition’s 18-yard box with the goalkeeper off his mark but missed the open goal.
Meanwhile, in the curtain-raiser Milerock played intriguing football in the first 45 minutes and led 1-0 at halftime. They claimed the lead as early as the 31st minute when Keon Sears found the back of the net.
However, in the second half Milerock could not get their act together as they missed out on numerous chances which gave their opponents time to get back into the game.
Hubentut Fortuna were able to score even though Guyana junior national footballer Ryan Crandon was a force to be reckoned with in the defensive line
The equaliser came in the 69th minute when the Curacao forward Lisandre Trinidad was successful then Milerock found themselves behind ten minutes later as Jose Adriano Chacas scored in the 79th minute.
Milerock worked desperately for the equaliser in the remainder of the match but could only blame themselves for not capitalising on their chances in the closing moments of the showdown.