The Pele Football Squad will begin their journey of defending their Mayor’s Cup title tonight when they clash with Seawall FC in this year’s Tournament at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) Ground from 8pm.
Prior to that match up, Riddim Squad goes head to head with Grove Hi Tec from 6pm in the curtain raiser of the double header.
The tournament kicked off Sunday at the same venue and the Fruta Conquerors was the first team to record a victory when they defeated New Amsterdam United 2 – 0 then Uprising created a major upset over Sunburst Camptown as they got past them 2 – 0 also.
Mustafa Hack and Jumo Hinds scored in the 62nd and 89th minutes respectively for Conquerors while Uprising’s Rensford Colleridge recorded the first double of the tournament.
Pele is now coached by Gordon Braithwaite, who returned to the team after 27 years and he is confident that though the team is young they will perform very well.
“Our preparation has been going well and I’m hoping that since it’s my first tournament with the team and I have confidence in them that they are going to have a good Mayor’s Cup” Braithwaite stated.
“We have a lot of youngsters who came into the squad, I’m certain they will give fairly good results since they will be led by a few season players. This now is a chance for them to step up since most of the other seasoned players are not around” he further added. The squad will be captained by Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant and he will be working alongside his deputy who will lead the defensive line, Solomon Austin.
Braithwaite implied that it should be a tough encounter because the teams outside Georgetown have been producing quality players so his team is going to have to work hard to earn the victory.
Seawall FC’s captain, Delon Josiah, told Stabroek Sport he is not ruling out a victory for his team going against Pele since he thinks his team has a good chance of defeating the squad.
“I think we stand a good change of beating Pele because we are up for the challenge. We have young players but to a good effect, no enough to change the shape of our team because we have well seasoned players but I think if we stick our game plan the job can be done” Josiah said.
The Grove Hi Tec/Riddim Squad match should be an intriguing one with both teams sensing victory amongst their camp.
These two teams both boast good players in their squad with tremendous potential which has been proven numerous times in tournaments last year.
Grove will look for victory with the likes of John Matthews, Erston Frans, Mervin Squires and Sherman Doris leading from the front while Riddim Squad has the skills of the Hope brothers alongside Lilyton and Amos Ramsey.
