St. Vincent wins!!!
ST. VINCENT and the Grenadines created history when they humbled the National Park Tarmac packed with Guyanese supporters, after they sent Team Guyana packing with a 2 – 0 victory, to take top honours in the first ever Guinness Caribbean Street Football Challenge last Saturday night. They are now US$4 000 richer, acquired one year bragging rights as the Greatest Street team of the Caribbean and more importantly, await one new Street Football Pitch to be built by Guinness.
Guyana had to settle for the second place prize of US$2 000;  Trinidad and Tobago finished third and carted off US$1 500;  with St. Lucia fourth for which they received US$1,000,  while Antigua returned home penniless after they finished fifth.
It was St. Vincent’s night on the final night, following three nights of entertaining and exciting street football, as they pulled off two great upsets on their way to the Greatest Title, defeating T&T in the semifinal, followed by their upset victory over the host team who scored a 1-0 semifinal win over St. Lucia.
They proved that the will to win was greater than the skill to win, since both Guyana and T&T displayed that they had more consistency than the eventual champions who lost to both teams in the preliminary round of matches.
In the final, the two sides played to a goalless first half and while St. Vincent’s hunger for victory was evident, Guyana had a laid back approach which did not reflect any of their previous performances.
Dwayne Dennie recorded the first goal three minutes into the second half (18th) then the Most Valuable Player (MVP) Juma Jilkes doubled the lead in the 27th minute with three minutes left in the tournament.
The third place showdown saw T&T battle against St. Lucia who had an unprogressive game plan which caused them to lose once again, with T&T’s Kerwin Simon scoring the golden goal in the 23rd minute to take his side to third place.