Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ National final: Pouderoyen preparing for Friday’s final showdown
If there were any lingering doubts about the unmatched popularity of the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ community football extravaganza, they were quickly put to rest by the irrefutably mammoth turnouts witnessed at this year’s zone competitions.
These community football matches were held across different regions of the country, and football fans clearly demonstrated that even the four-year hiatus caused by the Covid pandemic had little, if any, effect on the most celebrated street football tournament in Guyana.
The evidence was so strong that even the newly-included Anna Regina Zone, which was held in Essequibo, had seen massive crowd turnout; which must have been an encouraging sign for the organisers, Banks DIH Ltd.
With the culmination last week of the Bartica Zone, full attention is now being focused on the National Finals, which are to be staged this Friday at the Pouderoyen Tarmac in West Bank Demerara.
A glimpse of what to expect when the Guinness ‘Greatest of the Streets’ final kicks off this Friday
Nine teams will be vying for top honours, with the winner earning the coveted one-year bragging rights as the best team in the country. More than $2 million in prize money and trophies would be up for grabs, and fans would benefit from giveaways throughout the night’s proceedings.
The teams making this year’s final are reigning East Coast champions Hustlers, Essequibo’s All Stars, East Bank Gunners from Berbice, Silver Bullets from Linden, Ballerz Empire and Showstoppers from West Demerara, Laing Avenue and North Ruimveldt from Georgetown, and Mighty Rulers from Bartica.
The organisers have said that debutants All Stars will kick-off the night’s proceedings in a match against Hustlers, the winner of which would advance to the main draw to face Laing Avenue in the final quarter-final matchup.
In the other fixtures: Gunners take on Silver Bullets, Ballerz Empire tackle North Ruimveldt, and Mighty Rulers collide with Showstoppers.
The winners would then advance to the semi-finals, with Game 1 winner playing 3 winner, and Game 2 winner taking on Game 4 winner for places in the final. The winning team would cart off $1 million; while second-, third- and fourth-place finishers would respectively receive $500,000, $350,000 and $200,000.
