The 2014/2015 edition of the CONCACAF Champions League officially commenced on Tuesday August 5th with Guyana’s number one club Alpha United playing and losing to Deportivo Olimpia of Honduras in their opening fixture at the Providence National Stadium.
Though Alpha played well they were unable to recover from a 17th minute strike by the 18-year-old Alberth Elis and subsequently lost their first game in this year’s competition.
The team’s next game will be against Portland Timbers of the USA on next Tuesday at the same venue and Alpha United coach Dover has already stated that his side will be focusing on attack.
Below football pundits give their views on the performance of the Dover coached Alpha United side with recommendations for the side moving forward.
Calvin Allen-Fruta Conquerors Head Coach-“To be honest with you, the team needed some more time to gel. I think the players they brought in didn’t have enough time to adjust themselves to the way the team setup to play. I wasn’t sure if everybody was in sync with what was going on”.
“For the most part, Alpha held its own. I don’t think the cohesion in the group is where it should be. I think the foreign players should have come in a few months earlier. I also didn’t see the kind of sharpness in the final third, so goal scoring and creating was definitely a problem for them last night”.
“They weren’t many clear cut chances created and that tells a story. The coach got his work cut out in the coming days to get his team to play as one and there is definitely still a lot of work to do between now and the next game”.
“Goal scoring will definitely have to be priority because you have to win the games you have left to qualify for the next stage. All in all, Alpha has the whole of the Guyanese public behind them”.
Herbert McPherson-Buxton United Head Coach-“I liked how Alpha played. For me I think it was a good run matching a team with some players that finished playing in the world cup. I thought they played well. I thought offensively from the first half, the Honduras team defended. Our forwards look nippier and faster than them and I thought we would have exploited that more in the second half”.
“We started the second half with more ball possession in the final third but we faded away after that. I also would have liked to see more offensive work in the final third of the opponents. All in all I think it was a good game”.
Bryan Joseph-National u-17/Milerock FC Head Coach-“I expected more from Alpha. I thought most of the players on display didn’t play to their potential based on what I know they can deliver. I thought in terms of the tactics, Alpha got in totally wrong in the second half by playing long balls up to the forward who really didn’t win any”.
“I thought the midfield lacked venom outside Aldair Parades and none of the other midfielders didn’t really show up. I think the local based players didn’t get it right, even Gregory Richardson was under-par. Up until half time I think Alpha had a good chance to win the game, they were playing excellent link up play in the first half with the midfielders coming quickly and joining in and it was working very well”.
“But then in the second half, they went away from the quick combinations and went into long balls from the wing-backs into the forwards and the other team won the headers easily and picked up all the second balls”.
“When the other team started pressing Alpha in the second half, the Alpha midfield was nowhere in sight. They stayed forward and hope that someone punched the ball forward. In my opinion that team is not a better team than Alpha, they are definitely experienced in game management and took the sting out of the game in the second half”.
Vurlon Mills-Golden Jaguar International/GFC Head Coach-“I think Alpha played too relax, they didn’t pressure the team and close them down fast enough. They allowed the team to build confidence. I think the defense was playing so far from the midfield, they weren’t playing compact”.
“They squandered a lot of clear goal scoring opportunities. Defensively they were ok, but at some points they made some simple errors that could have hurt them a little more. It wasn’t the performance that the spectators expected from them”.
“We expected a much better performance because of the core of players they have now. We expected a better brand of football, they were giving away the ball a lot because they weren’t getting the numbers forward in support”.
“I think they have to work more on ball movement and trying to get numbers around the ball. Most of the times, only Aldair Paredes was actually playing his role in the midfield but he didn’t have much support and Gregory Richardson and Kithson Bain were dropping too deep”.
“When Alpha had possession, they didn’t have penetration because either forward was too deep to support the other”.
O’Neil Heywood-Den Amstel Coach-“I did expect more from them. I expected them to run at the team and I thought they gave the team too much of space and too much of respect to play. The other team had more ball possession and they had to run for the ball”.
“When they did get the ball, they already worked hard and don’t know what to do with the ball. They also had a lot miss passing and bad passes in the final third. We got better players that should have been playing in the team instead of the foreign players”.
“They brought a central a defender wearing no.6 who was marking badly and missing steady. What I think Alpha should have done was run at the other team who are accustomed to teams not pressing them. Alpha should have pressed them in their (Olimpia) half and cut out the pass”.
“Alpha wait until they meet over in their half to press them, they should have pressed them in their (Olimpia) defensive third. The amount of foreign players they bring, they didn’t need them. Our players matched their skill”.
“Kurt Duckworth, Kithson Bain and Aldair Paredes are the only foreign players that made an impact for the team”.
Jevon Rodrigues-Fruta Conquerors Junior Head Coach-“The difference between Alpha and the other team was finishing. Alpha was not the lesser team on the night, in fact they played more attacking than the other team as they had more chances”.
“I counted about five chances where the forwards failed to shoot the ball to the goal. That obviously caused them but they played well. The team had good chemistry, it’s a talented team they have right now”.
“They should have moved the ball more instead of just focusing on going to goal. They should have focused more on distribution and when you do that you create more space for the team. The team should be proud of their performance, remain focus and prepare for the next game”.