Latest update November 26th, 2024 1:00 AM
CWSS not taking anything for granted
By Rawle Welch
This year’s final of the 4th Annual Digicel Schools Football Competition dubbed ‘Extension or Redemption’ seems to have all the accessories to pack fans into the National Stadium on Sunday.
Defending champions Christianburg / Wismar Secondary School seen during a training session yesterday at the Wisburg ground.
The two finalists, defending champions Christianburg Wismar Secondary School (CWSS) and two-time beaten finalist Waramadong Secondary School (WSS) have once again set up a dream encounter that will determine who takes home a whopping $1million first prize that will go towards a project of their respective institutions choice.
Arguably the two best teams in the competition for the past two years, many believe that this year’s final will produce or even surpassed the previous encounters in every regard with the defending champions determined to win the championship trophy outright, while Waramadong beaten by the same team on all three occasions the competition has been played will no doubt be aiming to loosen the iron-fisted grip that CWSS seems to have on them.
Kaieteur Sport paid a visit to a training session organised by CWSS at the Wisburg ground in Linden and spoke to Head Coach Anthony Stephens, who was seen working on a few tactical errors which according to him were exposed during their semi-final match against Bush Lot Secondary School last week.
Stephens, who has been at the helm of the team since the tournament’s birth told this newspaper that among the flaws detected was the pedestrian manner in which the players transitioned from offence to defence and vice versa, while the passing was poor as well often times allowing the opposition to make interceptions and thereby creating a lot of pressure on the defence.
Stephens said in order for them to continue their dominance over Waramadong they have to do a better job at both ends of the pitch.
Asked to compare their wins on the two previous occasions they faced Waramadong, Stephens said he would like them to perform the way they did in the first final when they won 5-2 rather than the last one when they relaxed and lost momentum and had to dig deep to eventually prevail.
“We need to focus for the full duration of the game and I am confident that we can and as long as we do that everything will be fine.”
He added that in last year’s final, the players tried desperately to do things individually and that was the wrong approach since football is a team game and the strategy must be a collective one.
He believed there will be a much better team effort and this is despite the players possessing good individual skills.
Quizzed on how important it is for them to win, Stephens said,” some of the players will be appearing in the competition for the final time and they are quite cognizant of this and they will no doubt display a lot of hunger and passion to win it outright.”
Asked for his opinion on how the players will react to playing in the final for the third consecutive time and playing at the National Stadium before what is anticipated to be a large crowd, Stephens said he does not believe that the expected large turnout will affect his team and the notion of nervousness affecting them will not occur since they are used to playing in many finals and playing in front of plenty fans.
He ended by saying that, “God is in the midst of our quest to win a third title in the competition. From the beginning of this tournament we have had our morning devotions and in quite a few instances he has pulled us through and we think he will be with us come Sunday.”
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