A budding rivalry and a familiar contest will highlight the ‘Stag Nation’ Cup semi-final round when the Guyana Police Force (GPF) engages Western Tigers and Santos opposes Riddim Squad today at the Georgetown Football Club (GFC) ground from 18:30hrs.
The feature contest at 20:30hrs between the lawmen and Western Tigers, will be a clash of the offensive juggernauts.
The West Ruimveldt heavyweight is the event’s leading offence with 17 conversions, tallied following 9-1 and 8-0 drubbings of Pouderoyen and Flamingo respectively in prior rounds.
Randolph Wagner leads the tournament scoring chart with four conversions with Dwayne McLennon and Darren Benjamin following with three and two goals apiece.
Adding to the aforementioned trident are the likes of Joshua Britton, Jorell Tyrell, Andre Webber, Anthony Sancho, Jamal Pedro, Joshua Ramotar, Rensford Coleridge and Shamar Wilson, scorers of one goal each.
Defensively, the Tigers have only been breached a tourney leading once, justifying their initial tag of tournament favourite.
On the other hand, the lawmen, who possess almost identical numbers, will have fond memories of their last meeting with the Tigers which ended 2-0 in their favour last September.
Statistically, GPF is the second best strike force with 16 goals following lopsided victories over Rosignol United and Grove Hi-Tech via 13-2 and 3-0 scorelines respectively.
Quincy Holder and Anthio Wallace with three goals each are the leading marksmen while Kester Dundas and Grayson Barker have each scored twice.
Similarly providing an offensive threat with one goal each are Junior Gordon, Dwayne Charles, Jermaine Castello, Jermaine Grandison , Rawle Turnell and Keenon Rajgopaul.
In terms of their defensive quality, the lawmen’s defence has been breached twice. Earlier, at 18:30hrs, Santos will resume their long standing rivalry with Mocha-based Riddim Squad.
This matchup features teams of similar statistical quality. Santos earned their place in the final four owing to wins over Herstelling Raiders (4-0) and Uitvlugt (3-1) respectively.
Keith Caines has been the primary threat for Santos with three goals while rising star Job Caesar and Orin Yarde have each found the back of the net twice.
An often underappreciated aspect of their game, Santos has only conceded one goal during the campaign, which is the joint best record. For Riddim Squad, seven goals have also been crafted by a strike force which features five different scorers.
Kevin Agard and Kevin Gordon lead from the front with two goals each while Teon Jones, Dellon John and Sceyon Hope have scored one apiece in the wins against Den Amstel (2-1) and Cougars (5-2).
Of the teams remaining, Riddim Squad has conceded the most goals with three.
Winner of the event will pocket $2,000,000 and the championship trophy while the second, third and fourth placed unit will walk-away $1,000,000, $500,000 and $300,000 respectively and a trophy.
