– Camptown stump Pele 4-2 for third
According to the Chinese Zodiac, the Year of 2010 is the ‘Year of the Tiger’, which begins on February 14.
For BK International Western Tigers, the ‘Year of the Tiger’ began on Friday January 1 when they hammered Alpha United 2-0 to lift the Kashif and Shanghai Football tournament title.
A capacity crowd at the Guyana National Stadium roared when lethal striker Devon Millington and Dwayne Ali netted for Western Tigers who carted off the trophy for the first time in only their second final.
Prior to the start of the game, Lisa Punch sang sweetly the National Anthem, while the two finalists were greeted by Prime Minister Samuel Hinds and President of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Colin Klass before referee Roland Persaud sounded his Fox40 whistle to signal the start of the game.
Support-wise, Western Tigers seemed to have walked with the entire city since chants of “Western”; “Western” rang throughout the stadium.
Alpha United began the match with their usual forceful style having their strikers and other attacking players like Dwight Peters, Dwain Jacobs and Keon Edwards pressing the Tigers’ defence but once more it was `squander fest’ for the Alpha strikers.
Peters missed at least 12 chances on goal while Edwards’ count was not far off. When they weren’t missing, some brilliant saves by Western Tigers’ goal-keeper, Derrick Carter, made sure that he ended the game with a clean slate.
In pre-game media reports, it was suggested that for Western Tigers to take home the bacon, a lot would depend on their ace striker Millington and the player responded with raid after raid on the Howard Lowe-marshalled Alpha defense.
Though Lowe’s troops stood their ground, Millington didn’t hesitate to let loose some cannons on Ronson Williams in goal.
He came close in the first half when he broke down the middle on a counter attack and his right foot bomb hit the post.
The player pounded his fist into the ground of the Stadium to show his frustration while the crowd, who were very much into the game, cheered his effort.
Nevertheless, the half was controlled by Alpha and, though both teams tried, the score remained nil-nil going into the second half.
Alpha United made two substitutions in the second half, bringing in Shawn Bishop for Trinidadian Akim Armstrong and Andrew Murray Jr. for Edwards.
This combination did not fail to join in the miss the goal hunt with Bishop missing a well-timed header from a cross by Murray.
The junior national captain was guilty of `sinning’ big time as on several occasions he had the ball taken cleanly off his feet by some excellent glove work from Carter.
Millington down at the other end was not letting up and continued taking the game to the Alpha defence which stood strong.
But, inspired by the thunderous chants of their names and horns blowing all over the packed venue, Western Tigers found the opening in the 84th minute when Millington timed perfectly, a lob from the hard working Shawn ‘Bubbly’ Beveney in the middle. At that point in the game, Lowe had his defence playing high and when the ball went over their heads, Millington raced onto it and Williams was forced to advance to his left and the striker crafted a right foot shot which sailed into the net. The entire National Stadium rose to its feet to acknowledge the goal and the chants of “Western” got even louder.
Four minutes later Beveney made his way into the 18-yard box and was met by Lowe himself who stood his ground as the player executed a fancy step-over dribble much to the delight of the thousands of Western Tigers fans and in one motion, the England-based player found a lurking Ali in the box who slammed a hard right volley that went into the ‘V’.
Pandemonium broke loose in the stands and on the crammed grass mound as the crowd sensed that it was `lights out’ for Alpha United and Western Tigers would take home the trophy which they had lost in 2002 to Fruta Conquerors. When referee Persaud, who held an outstanding whistle throughout the game, signalled the end, it was Moet Champagne popping all around the ground.
In the opening game, after going down 2-0 in the first half with goals from Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson (31st minute) and Marvin Joseph (43rd minute), Sunburst Camptown regroup-ed to score four goals in the second half to seal third place with the win over last year’s winners Pele.
Captain Nigel ‘Powers’ Codrington muscled in a double (63rd and 70th minutes) while Telson McKinnon (84) and Kwame La Flour (87) stroked in the other two for the Continental Group of Companies-sponsored side.
