AMELIA’S Ward Russians (AWR) lived up to their pre-tournament prediction by defeating Hardknocks 1-0 on penalty kicks thanks to Odell Allicock, to take the 2012 Banks DIH sponsored Linden ‘Guinness Greatest of the Streets’ Futsal football tournament on Saturday night. In the battle for third place on the final night of the tournament which was held at the Amelia’s Ward/Wisroc bus park, Retrieve Unknowns defeated Porkerburg 4-0 with Darrell George scoring a brace.
The finals drew the undivided attention of the spectators, amongst whom were Regional Chairman of Region 10 Sharma Solomon, along with Banks DIH’s Linden branch manager Shaundell Easton and Guinness brand manager Lee Baptiste, who met the finalists before the kickoff. Despite several attempts at goal, both teams were guilty of selfish play which resulted in them failing to string passes together during regulation and extra time. With the referees pointing to the spot from which the eventual winner was decided after 30 minutes of action, the crowd on hand approached the barricade to get a closer look at the proceedings.
It was then Allicock, who is known for his custodial duties with Amelia’s Ward United and who displayed a sturdy defence to his team’s
opponent, kept his cool to find the back of the net, after his other two teammates had missed their respective kicks. As the third and final player from Hardknocks stepped up to take his spot kick, the names of both teams rang out thunderously from the lips of the spectators, while pandemonium broke out when the kick was missed, handing AMW the top prize of $500,000, one year bragging rights and a place in the Regional tournament. In the third place playoff, George who was later awarded a prize for being the tournament’s top goalscorer with seven goals reached that figure with his two strikes which were scored in the 3rd and 12th minute of play, to hand Retrieve Unknowns who finished second to Eagles last year, the victory. Marcello Jansen (4th) and Travis Adolph’s 19th minute penalty kick strikes completed Porkerburg’s humiliation in the third place playoff, as they struggled to string passes together, while their opponents did so with ease. Hardknocks, Retrieve Unknowns and Porkerburg took home $250,000, $150,000 and $100,000 respectively for their second, third and fourth placed finishing, while George and Shawn Daniels received trophies for Highest Goalscorer and Most Valuable Player (MVP) respectively.
In the exhibition contest which preceded the finals, Top Class, Power Company and Team Guinness completed the top three paying
positions for which they received $50,000, $30,000 and $20,000 respectively.