Four teams will this evening each put on their best showing of football skills in order to book a spit in the final of the fourth edition of the Limacol Football Tournament.
Fruta Conquerors FC will seek to extend their unbeaten run
Three of these teams are from Georgetown; two are under-20 teams while the third is a senior team. The fourth team hails from the East Bank of Demerara, but they all will converge at the Ministry of Education Ground on Carifesta Avenue; where, at 19:00hrs, either Pele FC or Santos FC Under-20 team will experience their first loss of the 2019 season when they clash for the first spot in next weekend’s final.
Riddim Squad will then look to end Fruta Conquerors FC Under-20 team’s unbeaten run in a match that commences at 21:00hrs.
While Pele FC have to their credit three wins and a draw, Santos are yet to finish on the losing side. And while the Santos Under-20 component ensures that the team is filled with agile youths, Pele FC boasts a similar makeup, with almost half of the team being young players. As such, the ‘clash of the youth-men’ will prove an interesting one to watch.
Santos FC will presumably be accustomed to the nervousness and uncertainties that attend such a crucial level of competition, given that they are the inaugural champions of the KFC Independence Cup Under-20 tournament hosted earlier this year.
Contrastingly, this is the first time that the revamped Pele FC have ascended to this stage of any competition since their resurrection. Thus on this basis alone it would be intriguing to witness how the Pele boys deal with the Santos experience.
One certain development is that each team would look to build up a solid defense based on the explosive strikers in their respective line-up, such as Santos’s Brandon Solomon and Pele’s Dorwin George.
The track records of the two teams in the second encounter are very similar to those in the first, with Fruta Conquerors Under-20 remaining unbeaten while Riddim Squad have three wins and a walkover.
Hailing from the football-crazy Georgetown ward of Tucville, Fruta Conquerors FC have been exceptional this year, with wins as large as 8-1 against Buxton Stars. This is testimony that Nicholas Mc Arthur and Ryan Hackett have greatly utilized their international experience to bring a sense of tactful coordination and quick-fire scoring to their games.
Riddim Squad have conversely been around for a very long time, and are no strangers to such competitions. They bring age and experience to the table with their roots grounded in Mocha. Kevin Gordon et al will be crucial players for this East Bank team.
Giving the contrasting nature of these two squads, a fascinating encounter is afoot, and one can expect a lot of defensive work.
Now in its fourth staging, the Limacol Football Tournament is sponsored by pharmaceutical giants New GPC. The tournament is also supported by WJ Enterprise, sole distributors of Croxley Paper.
The final of the Limacol tournament is expected to be held on Sunday, October 13, after which the newly crowned champions will walk away with $400,000. Second-place team will pocket $200,000, while third- and fourth-placed teams would receive $100,000 and $50,000 respectively.
