DEFENDING Georgetown and National Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ champions, Gold is Money, needled LA Ballers to clinch progression to the quarter-finals on the final night of the Group Stage action at the Berlin tarmac on Thursday night.

Meanwhile other crowd favourites Broad Street also left it late to seal their quarter-final berth with a win over John Street.

In the second game of the night Broad Street took to the tarmac needing a win in normal time to progress from Group ‘A’. They faced newcomers John Street and took an early lead through the talented Akeem Sam in the fourth minute.

However, Venezuelan Oswaldo Gil equalised for John Street in the 8th minute to pile pressure on Broad Street. In the remainder of the game Broad Street made several attacks but they could not find the target.

Two minutes from the final whistle, Sam finished off an impressive team move to tap home a Guinness Goal (any goal scored in the final 3 minutes counts as 2) and send the crowd into frenzy with Broad Street holding a 3-1 lead.

The youthful LA Ballers exited the tournament despite winning two of their three games in Group ‘A’ as Gold is Money needled them on the night to draw level on six points, but progressed due to a better goal difference.

Needing to win without conceding, the defending champions put in a workmanlike effort. Michael Pedro netted in the seventh minute to hand Gold is Money a 1-0 lead which they never relinquished. LA Ballers attacked for the greater part of the game but could not penetrate their opponents’ defence.

With both Leopold Street and Tiger Bay sealing progress since last weekend, they clashed in a game to decide who would top Group ‘C’ and did not disappoint as Tiger Bay came out on top after 20 minutes of high octane action.

Leopold took the early advantage through skipper Okeene Fraser who continued `his goal-scoring form by finding the back of the net in the eighth minute. The first half ended without any more goals and it seemed as though Leopold Street would hold on to their 1-0 lead but James Meredith had other ideas.

He drew Tiger Bay level in the 15th minute before netting a Guinness Goal in the 18^th minute to hand his side the 3-1 win which propelled them atop Group ‘C’.

Sparta Boss faced Albouystown-B in another top-of-the-group decider, to close off the night’s action. The latter needled Sparta Boss to secure maximum points with three wins from three matches in Group ‘B’ courtesy of a Melvorn Ross goal in the sixth minute This proved to be enough as Albouystown-B held Sparta scoreless.

Earlier in the night Alexander Village opened the night’s proceedings with a resounding 5-0 win over Charlotte Street; Quincy Porter netted a double in the 12th and 14th minutes while Shem Porter (8th), Leon Yaw (15th) and Delon Williams (16th) scored one goal apiece.

Albouystown-A handed Future Stars a victory by failing to show up for their engagement. For that infringement they were handed a one-year ban from the tournament.

Sophia progressed from Group ‘D’ after beating Rising Stars 4-1 through Guinness Goals from Dwayne Lowe and Gerald Grittens who netted in the 18th and 20th minutes respectively. Earlier it had looked bleak for the Sophia unit who conceded an early goal with Ray Smith on target for Rising Stars in the fifth minute.

Also advancing from Group ‘D’ were Back Circle who managed a 2-1 victory over rivals North East La Penitence.

Back Circle had grabbed the early advantage with Adrian Aaron finding the back of the net in the fifth minute. However Keifer Grant drew North East level with a goal of his own in the seventh minute.

Jermaine Beckles had the final say with his strike in the 14th minute proving to be the decider as Back Circle ran out 2-1 winners.

The quarterfinals and semifinals were played last evening at the National Cultural Centre tarmac. However, up to press time no results were available. A subsequent article will be published with the results of those matches.

Winner 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 and the corresponding trophy.

They will also automatically seal a place 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 sealed automatic berths to the National Championship.

Quarterfinal Matchups

(1) Broad St vs Leopold Street – 19:00hrs

(2) Albouystown-B vs Back Circle – 19:45hrs

(3) Sparta Boss vs Sophia – 20:30hrs

(4) Gold is Money vs Tiger Bay – 21:15hrs

Semifinal Matchups

Winner (1) vs Winner (4)

Winner (2) vs Winner (3)