– Kashif and Shanghai semi-final action tonight
As the race for football’s `Holy Grail’ nears its climax the Guyana National Stadium at Providence will take centre stage with tonight’s semi-finals of the 20th Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament.
Tonight’s action will see National Club Champions, Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United tackling Sunburst Camptown from 18:00 hours with defending champions Pele and BK International Western Tigers battling it out in the other semi-final.
Pele has been the tournament favourite and their striker, Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson, the talk of the tournament.
But their style of play has left a lot to be desired and they will certainly need to up their game if they are to get past their opponents tonight.
Western Tigers over the years has always been a strong contender for the title.
The last time the team contested the final was in 2002 when they fell 0-1 to Fruta Conquerors.
In the defence department, Pele has the advantage simply because of one man – Charles
‘Lilly’ Pollard.
Pollard, the former national captain somehow manages to drive fear into opposing strikers.
He has such a good eye reading the game that coaches have been known to switch their attacking strategy.
The “Tigers” though appear to have the edge in the other departments.
A look back at Pele’s previous two games will see that most of the plays go through Richardson and while the opposing teams’ defence have been unable to hold him, finishing has been a major worry.
Against the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) it came out quite clear that without Richardson, Pele’s attack was very weak with the exception of Gerald Whittington who has proven time and time again that he can get the job done.
He was mainly responsible for their triumph last year but somehow, the coaching staff has been limiting his playing time.
Western Tigers can boast the deadly Devon Millington and Phillip Rowley; two excellent finishers while Sean ‘Bubbly’ Beveney, who plays attacking midfield can make his presence felt at any given time.
However, defensively, the “Tigers” will need to tighten up. Against Bakewell Topp XX at the Mackenzie Sports Club Ground where they won 2-1, the Tigers needed to thank the Topp XX players who threw away at least five certain goals.
Their defence tends to ball watch and not control the spaces and, against a player like Richardson, this could be troublesome.
Predicting a winner in the The Alpha/Camptown match up, is easy – “The Hammer” all the way.
It seems as if the sun has gone down on Camptown and probably the only thing bursting for them will be their goal net if the team does not get its act together.
Alpha has proven that they can score and execute plays.
They have amassed 11 goals in two matches while only conceding one.
The team has played as a collective unit and while they often visibly disagree with each other on the field at the end of the day they get the job done.
National Captain Howard Lowe, unarguably the best defender in Guyana, has been more than a marshal for Alpha United both on and off the field and the Camptown forwards will definitely need to find a way of making their way around his defensive structure.
Abassi McPherson, Kevin ‘Yellow’ McKenzie, Philbert Moffat and Kelvin ‘Babo’ Smith are all capapable defenders while upfront, Alpha’s carpenters are Dwight Peters, Dwain Jacobs and Edison Gomes – players who have worn the national cap on several occasions.
Camptown, on the other hand, will certainly need their premier players like Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington and the fancy Telson McKinnon to strike.
Alpha has been the team to beat in Guyana for the past few years winning the Kashif and Shanghai tournament once and making it all the way to the final in their first outing in 2005.
