The Guyana Football Federation’s (GFF) Win in CONCACAF with CONCACAF Super League competition had a fitting climax Sunday evening at the Guyana National Stadium Providence as the ‘Hammer’, Alpha United triumphed 2-1 over the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) to take the one million dollars first prize and the right to be called “Guyana’s Top Football Club”.
The finalists were greeted by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds before the start of the match, and after the singing of the national anthem, referee Stanley Lancaster blasted his Fox 40 whistle to start the proceedings.
Watched by just under 2000 spectators at the stadium, including Commodore Gary Best, the GDF went right away into attacking mode with striker Stellon David going to work on the Alpha defence. With fancy footwork and ball movements he sent a hard right shot to goal which was easily taken by `goalie’ Ronson Williams.
Right away the GDF supporters, who walked with their drums and horns, began to enliven the stadium with their rhythms, setting the tone for the rest of the game.
At the other end of the field, Alpha United, who played undefeated throughout the tournament, came just as close after captain Howard Lowe’s header from a corner kick went just wide of the goal. The two sides then went at each other; both playing tight defence but it was Alpha United who had more tries on goal for the first 15 minutes.
They came close once again with an Abassi McPherson header from yet another corner which just shaved the right post and the player’s gesture afterwards showed clearly that he was close as he held his face, looking to the sky.
Meanwhile, the army continued to press on with their forwards Warren Gilkes, Delroy Deen and David doing most of the work and then they found the opening in the 20th minute. Alpha United had just attacked the army’s goal, so Lowe and his boys at the back were playing high. On the counter, David received the ball on the right wing and Deen who was playing in the middle, pounced on a through ball which was sent by the striker that caught Alpha’s defence wide open in the middle.
The lanky striker then was left one-on-one with Williams and using a simple drag he placed the ball at the back of the net and it was jubilation for the team and their supporters, including Best sitting in the VIP area. Nevertheless, the Alpha players held their composure and one minute before the close of the first half (44th minute), the hard working Dwain Jacobs made the army boys pay for careless defence work when he blasted in a beauty to level the game (1-1) at the end of the half.
Boosted by their late goal, Alpha United came out with fire. So too did the GDF and the two sides continued to attack each other.
The fourth official signaled two minutes extra time after the full 90 minutes had expired and along came Dwight Peters (90+1 minutes) once again, making the soldiers pay for their error at the back when he slammed a volley past the GDF custodian who lay stretched out on the ground in disappointment.
As Alpha celebrated the goal, the army players argued whose fault it was and by the time they could have tried to squeeze a goal back, Lancaster blew the whistle and pointed to the centre line which indicated the end of the game and it was jubilation amongst Alpha United and their supporters.
The faces of the GDF players spelt ‘disappointment’ as they settled for the $500,000 second prize.
In the third place play-off Sunburst Camptown whipped Milerock of Linden 3-1 with Chris Camacho (6th minute), Norris Carter (54th minute) and Rashard Sandiford (77th minute) being the goal scorers while Dextral Dainty was the lone goal scorer for the losing team with his 25th minute strike.
Meanwhile, the national under-20s and the Super League Rest Team played to a 1-1 draw. Pierre Joseph scored for the Super League team while Manasseh Primo equalized for the under-20 team.
