FANS turned out in their numbers last night at the National Cultural Centre tarmac, despite overcast and intermittent rainfall, as the group stage of the Georgetown Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ Championship commenced with eight thrilling encounters.

However, the highlights of the night were: Sparta Boss dismantling Alexander Village in the final game of the night, defending champions Gold is Money’s last-gasp win over John Street and an epic battle between the youthful LA Ballers and Broad Street, which had to be decided via a marathon penalty shootout.

Sparta Boss put six goals past a hapless Alexander Village team, who looked at sea for the greater part of their game. Ryan Hackett opened proceedings with a trademark power shot in the fourth minute to put Sparta 1-0 ahead. There were no more goals in the first half.

With two minutes gone in the second half, Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson doubled Sparta’s lead before veteran Shem Porter pulled one back for Alexander Village in the 15th minute. Within the closing three minutes of the game Sparta’s Dennis Edwards put the game to bed with two Guinness Goals (a goal scored in the final 3 minutes counts as two) in the 18th and 20th minutes to put the score line at 6-1.

Last year’s winner Gold is Money came up against tough newcomers John Street in the penultimate game of the night and were made to work for victory. John Street’s defence seemed impenetrable at times while they counterattacked brilliantly but without reward;

Gold is Money showed champions’ resolve and struck through their talismanic skipper Hubert Pedro in the 14th minute to spark celebrations in the crowd. They held on for the remainder of the match to walk away with maximum points.

Earlier in the night the youthful LA Ballers faced veteran street-ballers Broad Street in an old school versus new school epic, which saw both sides fail to convert many chances in a tense affair. After regulation time ended scoreless, the winners had to be decided by penalty kicks, which had both sides’ supporters on edge.

However, the youngsters on LA Ballers showed nerves of steel to score seven straight penalties while Broad Street faltered on their seventh kick to hand LA a 7-6 victory on sudden-death penalties.

Meanwhile the opening encounter, which pitted North East La Penitence against Rising Stars, also boiled down to penalty kicks after regulation time ended scoreless, North East came out 1-0 victors from the spot.

Continuing along the same vein Albouystown-B held Charlotte Street to a goalless draw at full time and eventually won 1-0 via penalties.

Leopold Street showed their credentials as potential title challengers with a comfortable 3-1 victory over Albouystown-A with Omallo Williams netting a brace in the 9th and 10th minutes respectively to send his team into the halftime break at 2-0.

After the second half resumed, Albouystown’s Akosi Jarvis struck almost immediately to halve the deficit but Darren Benjamin’s 14th minute goal sealed the 3-1 victory for Leopold Street.

Future Stars suffered a setback as Tiger Bay needled them courtesy of a Solomon Austin strike in the 16th minute while Back Circle also lost their match against Sophia via a similar score line as Dwayne ‘Goofy’ Lowe netted in the 15th minute.

The group stage, which will last for three nights, will end on July 26. The top two finishers from each pool will advance to the quarterfinals and subsequent semifinals on July 27. The grand finale is set for August 3 at a venue to be announced.

The eight teams who fail to advance from the group round will contest the Guinness Plate Championship.

Winners of the event will collect $500 000 and the championship trophy, with the second-, third- and fourth-place finishers copping $300 000, $200 000 and $100 000 respectively with the corresponding trophy.

They will also earn automatic berth in the National Championship in August.

To date Beacons (Bartica champions), Melanie-B (East Coast Demerara winners), Brothers United (West Demerara/East Bank Demerara winners), Trafalgar (Berbice champions) and High Rollers (Linden champions) have secured automatic berths to the national championship.