Back Circle, Broad Street, Alexander Village and Albouystown each recorded victories in their respective games on Sunday night when the Guinness Greatest of the Streets Exhibition Competition kicked off at the new Albouystown Basketball Court.
Back Circle, Guyana’s representative for the inaugural Guinness Caribbean Street Football Challenge drubbed D’Urban Street 5-nil with goals coming from the boots of Philip Rowley (11th minute) Daniel Favorite (16th minute), Vincent Thomas (19th minute), Alan Kennedy (22nd minute) and Dexter Griffith in the 30th minute.
Broad Street and Alexander Village both defeated Tiger Bay and West Front Road 2 goals to nil.
Jamal Cozier (ninth minute) and Jimmy Gravesandy (17th minute) scored for Broad Street while Delon Williams (seventh minute) and Shem Porter (30th minute) netted for Alexander Village.
Albouystown edged Island All Stars two goals to one. Andrew Murray (fifth minute) and Devon Small (18th minute) scored for Albouystown, while Orson McCurdy scored for the Island All Stars in the 29th minute.
Round-robin action will continue tomorrow night on the East Ruimveldt Basketball Court, then on June 2 at the Burnham Court. The knockout round and the final will be played at the National Cultural Centre tarmac on June 5 and 8 respectively.
Tomorrow night, Albouystown will tackle D’Urban Street at 20:00hrs, Broad Street will take on Alexander Village at 20:45 hrs, West Front Road will face Tiger Bay at 21:30 hrs and Back Circle will try to take advantage of their home court when they take on Island All Stars at 22:15 hrs.
The winner of the competition will take home $200,000 and a trophy while the second place team will receive $100,000, third place $50,000 and fourth place $25,000. The remaining four teams will take home $15,000 each. Admission to each game is free.
Team Guyana (Back Circle) is using the five-night exhibition tournament as a warm-up for the lucrative Caribbean Street Football Challenge which commences on June 21 on the National Park tarmac. Team Guyana (Back Circle), which won the last Guinness Greatest of the Streets Football competition will tackle other winners of the same tournament from Trinidad and Tobago,
Haiti, St Lucia, St Vincent and Antigua during the three-night event.
The winner of the Caribbean Street Football challenge will receive US$4,000, a multi-purpose playing facility and bragging rights as the best street football team in the Caribbean.
After a round-robin preliminary format, the top four teams will qualify for the semi-finals. The winners will do battle in the final game which will be staged on June 23. The first, second and third runners-up will receive US$2,000, US$1,500 and US$1,000 respectively.
