By Emmerson Campbell
Two games, two wins, nine scored goals and Back Circle (Team Guyana) keeps on warming-up.
After drubbing D’Urban Street 5-nil 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 followed it up in similar fashion.
On the second night of the five-night exhibition competition on Wednesday at their home court, (East Ruimveldt Basketball Court), Back Circle defeated the Island All Stars 4 goals to 2.
A double by Daniel Favourite (26th and 30th minute) and strikes by Alan Kennedy (20th) and Vincent Thomas (22nd minute) earned Back Circle their victory. Favourite Kennedy and Thomas also scored in the previous game versus D’urban Street.
Leon Jarvis netted both of the Island All Stars goals (27th and 28th minute).
Other winners of the night included Albouystown and Alexander Village, Tiger Bay and West Front Road playing to a 3-all stalemate.
Albouystown won their second match in as many games while D’urban Street remained scoreless and lost their second game of the competition to Albouystown 3 goals to nil.
Alpha United striker Andrew Murray Jr. (ninth, 16th and 21st) recorded a hat-trick to secure Albouystown’s victory.
Alexander Village edged out Broad Street two goals to one. Shem Porter scored a double for Alexander Village (seventh and 18th minute), while Johnny Gravesande scored for Broad Street in the eighth minute.
Goals for West Front Road came off the boot of Kwame Pedro (15th minute) Stellan David (16th minute) and Michael Pedro (28th minute).
Deon Alfred (11th minute) and Solomon Austin (19th and 21st minutes) netted goals for Tiger Bay.
Round-robin action will continue tomorrow night 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, Island All Stars will tackle D’Urban Street at 20:00hrs, Broad Street will take on West Front Road at 20:45 hrs, Back Circle will face Albouystown at 21:30 hrs and Tiger Bay will come up against Alexander Village 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.
