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Alpha thrash Pele; Santos breeze past NA United as quarterfinals duels conclude
Dwight Peters (right) attempts to dribble the ball past a Pele player in the heat of the action
Expert dribbling, stiff tackles and many instances of roughhouse tactics – the game was riddled with all of these and a little more when Pele FC faced off with Alpha ‘The Hammer’ United in a quarterfinal match when action in the Fruta Conquerors One Love Classic knockout football tournament resumed at the Tucville Ground Sunday evening last.
In the end, the aggression of Manasseh Primo (40th min) supported by the adroitness of Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson (45th), won out, leading Pele FC to a 2-0 victory and a semi-final berth in the tournament.
Santos FC were also in winner’s row and clinched a decisive 3-0 victory over New Amsterdam United (NAU) and earned the other semi-final spot on offer due to successes of the boots of Ryan Seals (72nd), Odel Williams (75th) and Vassel Cantzelaar (85th).
‘The Hammers’ fielded two players that once played for the opposition in Travis ‘Zorro’ Grant and Gregory ‘Jackie Chan’ Richardson but while Alpha regarded this development as their ace in the hole, Pele coach, Cary Jacques remained unperturbed while placing his confidence in mid field players, Konata Manning and Mark Jahlan. Pele also fielded other competent players like Calvin Shepherd Okeny Fraser and Keoma Gravesande.
Shepherd seemed set to endorse his coach’s confidence when he thundered down the left wing just after the game commenced and peppered the Alpha custodian with a ferocious kick. The latter player was up to the task and smoothly collected the offering. Manning also tested the goalkeeper early in the game with a powerful shot just outside the box but once again the Alpha goalie proved his usefulness between the uprights and averted any disaster. It was around this time that the floodlights dimmed and the technicians spent a little over 30 minutes to fix the problem.
Upon resumption, Pele’s strike force, led by Konata Manning upped the ante and kept the ball in Alpha’s territory albeit without success. Thereafter, the exchanges were fierce as both teams battled valiantly for dominance. Richardson then broke away after dribbling past the Pele defence and earned a free kick after he was improperly checked in stride. Once again, Pele custodian proved his worth, punching the ball back into play.
Meanwhile, Dwight Peters, who had been kept quiet on the left flank, was fed a dolly of a pass, spun and raced to the goal only to be improperly intercepted by one of Pele’s defenders and merited a penalty. Pele’s custodian, Devon Charles, warmed the hearts of his fans when he plunged to his right and averted a disaster. The celebrations were short-lived as shortly afterwards Primo launched an attack and broke the deadlock for Pele.
‘Jackie Chan’ almost emulated Primo’s feat just afterwards but botched the opportunity with a strike straight into the goal keeper’s hands. The dapper striker made amends less than five minutes later when he dribbled past Pele’s defence and pushed the ball to the right to send his team 2 nil up. That goal was the last in the game even though there were many opportunities that would have changed the dynamics but both teams were guilty of blotches. Santos players expertly distributed the ball in the early stages that kept the New Amsterdam team working overtime. Devon James managed to intercept one of the passes and sped to Santos’ goal but was alone with the ‘keeper’ when he lost his composure and tapped the ball into the custodian’s grasp.
The first goal came after a goal scrimmage that drew the NAU custodian out of his berth for Ryan Seals to score. Three minutes later, Odel Williams weaved his way past the NAU defence and tucked the ball to the right of the advancing custodian. Vassel Cantzelar sealed the issue for Santos when he scored off of a penalty after his teammate, Odel Williams, was fouled in the box. That success proved decisive as it held to the final whistle. The chaff has been separated from the wheat and two other teams will walk the plank when two semifinal matches are played tomorrow night. In the feature attraction starting at 20:00hrs, Fruta Conquerors will battle Santos FC shortly after Alpha United tackles the Guyana Defense Force at 18:00hrs. The respective winners will clash on February 24 while the losers will battle in the third place playoff. The top team receives the championship trophy and the $1.2M first prize, while the runners-up pocket half that amount. The third and fourth place finishers receive $400,000 and $200,000 respectively.
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