-‘The Hammer’ humbles River Plate to progress to next round of CFU club c/ships
Alpha `The Hammer’ United claimed its first victory in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) club championships when they defeated River Plate FC in a thrilling encounter at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) Ground, Bourda yesterday.
The home side rallied to a 3 – 2 victory but the score line did not tell the entire story. Alpha United, like in the previous match on Friday, lacked the ability to effectively finish near goal though they played better football.
Given the large number of opportunities to score Alpha United created, had they lost they would have had no one to blame but themselves.
The opening minutes of the match saw Alpha United throwing away two early opportunities to score with Devon Millington failing to find the back of the net in the 18 yard box when gifted with two terrific passes.
As the game progressed, the throwing away of goals began coming in all different forms for Alpha while River Plate had only a handful of weak opportunities.
The River Plate team was behind on ball possession but their players were very well organized on attack.
The second half opened with another heart stopping moment when Alpha’s Shawn Bishop found himself on a one-on-one with the River Plate custodian who won because of Bishop’s late decision to lob the ball over the charging goalkeeper.
Just a few seconds afterwards River Plate found themselves one man down when Martin Morallo was blown for handling the ball inside the 18-yard box. The penalty awarded to Alpha was successfully converted by Dwight Peters in the 55th minute.
Three minutes later the overlap in offense for Alpha proved critical for the opposition as second half substitute Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams finished critically to put Alpha ahead by two goals.
Approaching the middle of the second half it was evident that the fitness of the home team’s players began to ebb causing the River Plate side to pull one back when Matias Maroni blasted one past the defence and goalkeeper from just on top of the 18-yard box.
But Andrew Murray Jr., who was another Alpha United substitute, regained the lead for his side with an 83rd minute goal that was clinically tucked away.
It seemed all over bar the shouting but River Plate’s Ruben Diaz made it a one possession game again when he scored in the fourth minute of injuries and stoppages time.
After the game coach of the winning side Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover said he was really happy with the result of the match since it was very important to them.
Speaking of his team’s performance he said: “I think it was good, we had a few tactical errors early on but we made sure that was corrected.”
He commended Abrams for playing his part which he thought was very important and also Murray whose goal gave the side a working momentum to take them to the end.
Dover voiced his concern about the side not being able to effectively score.
He disclosed that he before the match he told his side that “It is not how much or how long you have possession of the ball but how much you are able to score because goals win matches.”
Dover, who is also the Golden Jaguars National coach noted that the opposition played a very good match.
However, he said their performance in the second match was much more different than the first when the two teams battled to a goal less draw.
This time, he said, Alpha was able to impose its game plan to come out victorious.
