UP TO press time last night hosts Guyana and St Vincent and the Grenadines advanced to the final of the inaugural Guinness Caribbean Street Football Challenge after defeating their opponents St Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago in the semifinals at the National Park tarmac. A tremendous turnout of supporters witnessed two closely contested semi-final matches that tweaked the nerves as Guyana got past St Lucia 1-0 in the opening match then St Vincent upset T&T 2-1 on penalty kicks.
Like Friday night, St Lucia game’s plan was to defend until regulation time to drive the game into a dreaded penalty shootout. However, Guyana’s terrific mode of attack eventually broke down the wall of four full-grown men who guarded a foot-and-a-half-wide goal with their lives.
Travis Grant was the star of that show as he drew first blood in the 20th minute of the 30-minute battle.
Following that match, T&T and St Vincent played matching football with the latter drawing first blood in the first half – a goal which was answered shortly after – as each team had numerous opportunities to score but their finishing lacked finesse because of their questionable fitness.
It was a nail-biting finish in the penalty shootout. Both teams missed their first two attempts then both scored on the third. When it came down to the final attempt St Vincent held more nerves to take the victory.
Meanwhile, after press time on Friday night, St Lucia crushed Antigua 4-0, Trinidad and Tobago got past St Vincent 1-0 on penalty kicks after being nil-all at full time while Guyana defeated St Lucia 2-1.
The night ended with Guyana on 12 points, T&T on nine points, St Vincent remained on six points, St Lucia jumped to three points while the unfortunate Antigua side failed to get off the mark.
Dougla Marcelin recorded a double for St Lucia in the fourth and 18th minutes while his team mates Kevin Edwards (17th) and Tamil Joseph (20th) scored, to dominate the Antiguan side.
In the T&T-St Vincent battle, the teams played matching football for the entire match, both missing some tough chances. However, when the match went down to penalty kicks, T&T’s Cory Carrington was the only player to score.
St Lucia achieved a feat that no other team could, against Guyana, and scored. The energetic Edwards scored an 18th minute goal for St Lucia but Guyana had already gone ahead by two goals thanks to Daniel Favorite (5th) and Travis Grant (10th).