THE East Coast community of Beterverwagting (BV) will come alive tonight as day two of the 23rd Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament continues with two interesting matches.

Game one brings together the home side and Timehri Panthers from 18:30hrs while in the night’s second game Buxton United will play Winners Connection from Linden.
The Kashif and Shanghai tournament is said to be the ‘Holy Grail’ of local football, bringing together some of the country’s best teams and this year, they’re all vying to capture the $4M first prize, but like the saying goes “there could only be one winner”.
Last year, the tournament wasn’t kind to the teams from the East Coast, with them all being out in their respective first game, but this time around, they’re hoping their fortunes change, as Buxton Stars were sent packing on the tournament’s opening night.
Buxton United will be looking to better their home-based rivals (Buxton Stars) opening night’s performance which saw them being crushed five goals to nil by a hungry Pele team.
Their opponents – Winners Connection – on the other hand are aiming to emulate their rivals Amelia’s United, who became the first team from Linden to advance to the quarter-finals stage so far, following their 2-0 over Bartica’s Mill Ballers.
Orin Trotman, coach of the Winners Connection team said that his side was a late inclusion for the tournament this year, but nonetheless, his team have been responding well to the training and they’re looking forward to playing tonight against a team they’ve never faced.
“We’ve had our little difficulty in putting the team together, because we were invited late. Some of the guys work in the interior and so on, but we have been training, had a few practice matches against Amelia’s Ward, Milerock and also brought in some players to strengthen the team,” Trotman said.
He added that while their preparation time is limited, his players are motivated by the attractive prizes up for grabs this year with the car for the MVP being the most attractive.
“Everyone wants to win that car, so it’s pushing them to respond better and perform at a high standard on the field. I think these prizes are long overdue and I’m glad these players are being rewarded for the hard work they put into preparing, even if it’s only one person or one team, they are still being highly rewarded,” said the coach of Winners Connection.
Apart from the players’ incentives being increased this year, fans also stand to gain with cell phones, motorcycle, food hampers and DVD players being given out on a nightly basis.