A heavyweight matchup between West Front Road and Queen Street Tigerbay alongside an unlikely meeting between Sparta Boss and Kitty Weavers will highlight the semi-finals of the inaugural Guyana Beverage Company Busta Football tourney today at the GFC ground.
In the feature semi-final matchup at 23:00hrs, Kitty Weavers will attempt to continue their underdog run when they face off with giants Sparta Boss.
Upsetting a highly touted Festival City side 3-0 in the quarterfinal round, Kitty Weavers will attempt to engineer another shock result led by the likes of Sherwin Vincent, Quincy Madramootoo and Wendell St Hill.
While they might not boast the star-studded line-ups of the other remaining sides, Kitty from an attacking standpoint has scored a decent nine goals to date over five matches. In the knockout round of their campaign, they have netted three times in the two matches.
Defensively, the underdog unit has conceded five times to date. However a closer look at the numbers would highlight they have yet to be breached in the knockout rounds and will need to maintain that stat in order to progress to the next stage.
On the other hand, Sparta Boss has been a goal scoring juggernaut, netting a tourney-leading 17 goals to date. Further analysis of the statistics show that the North East La Penitence outfit has scored an impressive seven goals in the elimination round.
Sheldon Shepherd and Gregory Richardson leads their charts with four goals each while Dennis Edwards, Travis Grant and Devon Millington have scored three goal apiece to form a dangerous quintet.
If there is an area of weakness it would be defensively as Sparta Boss have conceded nine goals, three of which have come in their two elimination matches.
Meanwhile, the opening contest at 22:15hrs will pit two of the event’s initial favourites against each other in a rematch of their earlier 1-1 group fixture. In the case of Queen Street Tigerbay, offensively they have netted an impressive 15 goals over their five-match run.
A further look at the attacking numbers highlight that they have scored a knockout round leading eight goals over two games.
Leading their free scoring charge are Deon Alfred and Darren Harris who have scored seven and five goals respectively, while support has come in the form of James Meredith and Godfrey Powers who have netted two goals and one goal respectively.
Defensively they have improved after initially conceding six goals in the three group stage matches. Currently they have only been breached twice in the two knockout fixtures, with their quarterfinal showdown being a clean-sheet.
However as impressive as Queen Street Tigerbay is on the attack, West Front Road have set the standard for the tourney on the defensive end.
To date they have only been breached five times, all of which have come in their three earlier group stage matches. This stat is due to their ability to maintain possession of the ball on both sides of the field.
Coupled with the defensive stat, West Front Road has been capable going forward as they have scored a decent 11 goals over their five matches. Three of those 11 conversions have come in the two knockout fixtures.
Leading their scoring drive are Randolph Wagner and Michael Oie who have netted four goals each while defensively Hubert Pedro alongside Michael Pedro organizes their very compact rearguard.
Victors of the tourney will receive the championship trophy and $600,000. Meanwhile, the second, third and fourth-placed sides will receive $300,000, $200,000 and $100,000 respectively and the respective accolade.
The most disciplined team will receive $25,000. On the individual side, the most valuable player (MVP) will receive $50,000 while the highest goal scorer will pocket a gold chain.
