Alpha United stamped their authority on Pouderoyen while Pele scored a come-from-behind win following a penalty shoot out with Bakewell Buxton Stars as play in the 18th Kashif and Shanghai football Festival continued Tuesday evening at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground.
Alpha United, Georgetown’s premier league champions, brushed aside the West Demerara side 2-0 in a one-sided affair played under soggy conditions as the current rainy season continued to affect the playing surface.
But it did very little to dampen the spirit of the spectators who continued to turn out in large numbers for the matches with yesterday’s Xmas Day matches being no different to what went on before.
Alpha United took the lead as early as the seventh minute when Elton Brown, who was unmarked at the edge of the box, powered home the ball to the left of Pouderoyen’s goalkeeper.
The West Demerara side who seemed determined to dribble the ball under the muddy conditions, made very little impact and Alpha United seemed satisfied with their lead.
With a 1-0 half time lead some spectators left the venue feeling that the result was a foregone conclusion.
Brown and Dwight Peters made a few attempts at goal but were unsuccessful until the 85th minute when Peters received a perfect right side cross from Brown and scored with a well-timed header
Alpha, the losing finalists in the recently held Namilco football festival, will now square off with Western Tigers in the final set of quarter-final matches tomorrow evening at the GFC ground.
Pele will meet Amelia’s Ward in the first game of the double header card starting at 19:00 hours.
Pele took the tough road to the quarter-finals when they recovered from being 0-2 down after almost 60 minutes of play to beat Bakewell Buxton Stars of East Coast Demerara 3-2 in a penalty shoot-out following two late strikes from their experienced international duo of Gregory “Jackie Chan” Richardson and Nigel “Powers” Codrington.
The East Coast side came out with purpose and had Pele on the back foot for most of the first half and eventually scored in the 44th minute from a Charles Garnett strike.
Cheered on by vociferous supporters Buxton Stars continued their dominance in the second half and netted again this time through Dwayne Jacobs in the 60th minute.
There was an interruption after their second goal following crowd problems and when play resumed after approximately five minutes the East Coast side seemed to have lost their rhythm and Pele rebounded with two quick goals.
Richardson scored Pele’s first goal in the 70th minute when he slipped a defender’s tackle and found Buxton goalkeeper Andrew Durant advancing before patting home an easy goal.
Five minutes later a lurking Codrington scored the equalizer for Pele following a left side build up after the first shot at goal was partially saved by the goalkeeper and found the waiting sharpshooter who made no mistake in hitting home the ball.
Pele had two golden opportunities before the end of regulation time but the scores remained unchanged taking the two teams into extra time then penalty kicks.
The Buxton side scored their first penalty but Codrington missed his.
The East Coast side then squandered two kicks but scored their fourth before their goalkeeper Durant missed the fifth.
On the other hand Pele rebounded to score their three kicks before celebrating victory and an intended showdown with Amelia’s Ward tomorrow.
Two quarter-final matches were stage last evening at the MSC in Linden with Top XX taking on Netrockers, while Winners Connections were down to oppose Fruta Conquerors.
