With the weight of the East Coast of Demerara on their shoulders, head-coach of Buxton United Herbert McPherson said his team’s only aim is to be crowned champion at the end of the Guyana Football Federation (GFF) Stag Beer Elite League.
In an invited comment with Stabroek Sports, McPherson said: “We will be striving and aiming for the best which is to win the tournament. We have been preparing hard for the last two-and-a-half months and we are going into the tournament with confidence.”
Mc Pherson said winning the league was not altogether an unrealistic expectation.
“Moreso it is a realistic expectation. We have been preparing and have been fine tuning. Preparation has been coming smooth and currently we are at the final stages with the team”.
Questioned about the general tactic that will be employed by the team throughout the event, he said:“We have been a team that plays a defensive system so we are not moving from that but simply adding things we don’t normally do. We have to score goals to win so a lot of our training has been on transition offence as well as on our finishing.”
The event, which is expected to last for eight months, will kick-off on tomorrow at the Leonora Sports Facility. The other competing teams in the event are Alpha United, Bakewell Slingerz, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Pele FC, Georgetown Football Club (GFC), Monedderlust FC and Fruta Conquerors.
At the end of the opening round which is called League Genesis, the top four sides will advance to a knockout round which will be used to decide the round’s winner.
The resulting winner of the round will receive $4,000,000 while the second, third and fourth place teams will collect $2,000,000, $1,000,000 and $500,000 respectively. Also, prior to the start of the knockout tourney, the team finishing at the top of the standings will be awarded $1,000,000.
Similarly, the second round of the event which is named League Finale will play under the same format, with the resulting four sides pocketing the identical financial incentives. The actual season champion will be crowned when the victor of both rounds compete in a fixture.
If the winner of the League Genesis and League Finale rounds are the same team, they will earn the automatic CFU spot, with the second berth going to the team with the most accumulated points in both rounds non-inclusive of the eventual season champion.
