…easily dispose of pretenders in semi-finals

By: Ras Wadada
THE country’s two top football clubs – Slingerz FC and Alpha FC – once again demonstrated their superiority when they easily dismissed Cup pretenders, Pele FC and Conquerors FC in the semi-finals of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Elite League play-offs staged last Friday night at the Leonora Park Stadium.The ‘Jackie Chan-less Pele FC’ never really tested the Slingerz unit and should have been beaten by a wider margin of 3-1.
No fewer than five clear-cut chances were squandered from close up in the second half by the West-side ballers against a disorganised looking Pele defence in the opening match of the double-header.
Pele took the lead after 11 minutes of action when Slingerz defender Kester Jacobs’s intended back pass to his goalkeeper Winslow McDowell ended up in the net. The Vincentian custodian, momentarily, took his eyes off the ball which eluded his attempt to control. Four minutes later Slingerz levelled the score when Clive Nobrega scored from a rebound off the cross bar after an indirect free kick.
A goal each from Julian Wade and Trayon Bobb in quick succession just after the break took the game away from Pele. The Dominican, Wade should have at least scored a hat-trick but his efforts were all off target in a period dominated by Slingerz.
Head Coach of the Slingerz FC, Joseph ‘Bill’ Wilson told Chronicle Sport in a post-game interview that while he is not surprised with the result he was not satisfied with the team’s performance, “Prior to the game I expected to win convincingly, because these teams like Pele are not doing enough in training preparations to be of any threat.
We won the game before it was played. However, I was far from satisfied with the team’s performance, especially in our finishing which was way off target. We need to put more in our concentration level and focus more on being patient in front of the goal, something we often talk about.”
“From now until the final we would be putting a lot of emphasis on our finishing as we cannot afford to go into the final off-target like that. We need to sharpen up.
“There is still a lot of work to be done between now and next February to reach to the level of competing with the rest of the Caribbean in the CONCACAF club championships , and that is where we are aiming for”, a concerned Wilson stated.
The winner of the GFF’s inaugural Stag Elite League last year is projecting another success against rival Alpha United, who made light work of Conquerors FC in the other semi-final.
It was sweet revenge for the Wayne Dover-coached side who lost in the first round of the regular season to Conquerors.
The match started off at a frenetic pace, amid slight drizzles, and for a brief moment it seemed as though a quality contest was in the making for the few fans who turned out.
After 25 minutes of play, the experienced Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams opened the scoring and within a minute Andrew Murray Jr. doubled the lead for Alpha.
Inspired by the two-goal cushion at the half, the Alpha boys added two more in the last half with Delon Lanferman (86th) and Daniel Wilson (90+2) being on target in the lopsided affair. It was sweet revenge for the 3-1 loss Alpha suffered in the second round of the regular League season.
Coach Dover in a post-game comment told Chronicle Sport that though he is satisfied with the outcome of the game he would like to see his side possessing the ball for longer periods and being a bit more patient.
The ‘Dreadlocked’ Dover cited the two quick goals as the turning point in the game, “I think the two quick goals in the first half took the wind out of their sails and it was hard for them to come back”.
Dover added that the 3-1 defeat to Conquerors was the wake-up call for Alpha, “We had a very serious meeting after that loss and there were some stringent rules laid out as to how we conduct ourselves leading up to the rest of the games and from then we have had a sudden transformation in the attitude and working diligently as a team.”
Looking ahead to the grand finale on June 19th,Father’s Day, Dover sounded very optimistic, “Recently, Slingerz have been having success against us, but this upcoming final is the most important meeting of all and this is the game that matters.
“We will be going all out to avenge all previous losses to them, so that this victory will be very special as we intend to end this tournament as national champions of Guyana”, Dover declared.
Meanwhile, Head Coach of Conquerors, Calvin ‘Flu’ Allen insists that it is the end of his tenure, “I have stated before that at the end of the season I will no longer be the Coach of Conquerors and I maintain that.
There is no denying that we are having internal problems. I think I have done my part in bringing the team to where we are now, but I am not prepared to continue to work in such conditions.”