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GTT Fastball Finals: Pele Gold and Trophy Stall All Stars are first Fastball champs!

Team Pele Gold
2011 Male Fastball Champions: Team Pele Gold

There was an air of expectancy in the Providence National Stadium on Sunday night as BK Western Tigers squared off against Pele Gold in the much anticipated finals of inaugural Fastball competition.

From the opening whistle Pele Gold played attacking football and made their intentions clear that they wanted to take home the top prize. Western Tigers seemed content with playing a defensive game and counterattacking. This strategy proved to be their undoing however.

Trophy Stall All Stars
2011 Female Fastball Champions: Trophy Stall All Stars

Pele created several early scoring opportunities with several shots going wide of the goal and testing the Western defense. A free shot awarded to Pele just cleared the top bar of the Western defended goal keeping the crowd excited.

The breakthrough however came after the”blue ball” was introduced into the game. The blue ball is probably the most distinctive aspect which separates fastball from regulation football. After 5 fouls are committed by any team the opposing team is awarded a six(6) seconds penalty. This is very crucial especially if the fifth foul is committed while the blue ball is in play since each goal is counted as two(2).

Ronson Williams
Doving King: Alpha United GK - Ronson Williams

The relentless attack of Pele eventually paid off just a few minutes after the blue ball was called for. Player #11 Marvin Joseph made an attacking run down the left side then after some fancy footwork, beat two defenders at the top of the box and drilled the blue ball into the back of the net putting Pele up by two.

About two minutes after halftime Western Tigers looked a more spirited team if not desperate to undo the first half damage. It proved not enough however when Stellon David needled one off a rebound. That proved to be the final goal as Pele kept the ball in posession largely for the remainder of the game.

Travis Grant captain of the winning side related that his team practiced and worked hard to be the top side and that they “are proud to be the first fastball champs.” Pele took away $1M in cash along with free credit.

In the female finals Trophy Stall All Stars got the better of Eagles United out of Lethem 3-2. The All Stars won $100,000 plus credit.

Meanwhile Ronson Williams “dove” a skillful 1000+ to win half a million dollars compliments of GTT.

By – Andrew Ross

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PAHF Challenge: Guyana qualifies for Pan Am Cup in 2013

Alysa Xavier
Team Guyana Goal Keeper - Alysa Xavier

Despite a 2-0 loss to top seed and pre-tournament favourites, Uruguay, the Guyana Women’s Hockey Team has achieved its primary objective of making the final of the PAHF Challenge. The Challenge which is being played in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, begun on July 31st and will be completed when the finals are played on Sunday August 7th 2011. The top two teams in the PAHF Challenge, Guyana and Uruguay, who clash in the final tomorrow (August 7), both earn spots in the World Cup Qualifier for the Americas, the PAHF Cup, to be held in Argentina in 2013.

Leigh Sandison and Ulrica Sutherland
Leigh Sandison joins Ulrica Sutherland (partly hidden) to disposses a Uruguayan striker

Going into their final pool match of the tournament against the unbeaten Uruguayans, Guyana needed to concede as few goals as possible against them to have the best chance for qualification. The Guyanese had drawn their match against Brazil 1-1 earlier in the week and now had to do their best on the final day to finish with a better goal average than the hosts to qualify for the final. The match however proved to be a difficult one with the Guyanese going down by one goal as early as the 4th minute when a powerful penalty corner strike from Uruguayan full back, Karina Bisignano, deflected off the stick of Captain Chantelle Fernandes and into the Guyanese net. Guyana played strong defence but struggled to mount any meaningful attacks as the Uruguayans controlled the possession and applied continuous pressure. In the 22nd minute, Uruguayan substitute, Florencia Norbis produced a skilful deflection on a pass across the scoring circle that proved too difficult for Alysa Xavier who had been having a fine game in goal for the Guyanese.

Ulrica Sutherland
Team Guyana's sweeper Ulrica Sutherland

With the Guyanese down 0-2 at the half, their chances appeared to be slipping away as there seemed to be no way around the organised and skilful Uruguayans. Guyana would however produce a greatly improved second with brave efforts from many of their players including Leigh Sandison, Ulrica Sutherland and Xavier in goal. Uruguay would fail to produce any more goals for the remainder of the match and while Guyana managed to enjoy greater possession of the ball, never seemed to threaten the outcome. The game finished at 2-0 in favour of Uruguay.

With Brazil now needing the beat Paraguay by 5 goals in the final match of the day, the Guyanese girls remained tense as their fate was now in Paraguay’s hands. Brazil would muster a gutsy 4-1 victory but it would not be enough to deny the Guyanese their place in the final. Uruguay topped the pool round with 12 points, Guyana and Brazil managed 7 points each but Guyana placed second with a better goal average. Paraguay finished fourth in the pool with 3 points and Bermuda remained on zero at the end of the pool round. Guyana now faces Uruguay again in the finals at 14:30hrs while Paraguay will challenge Brazil for third place at 12:00hrs tomorrow, Sunday 7th.

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Alpha United through to CONCACAF Champions League

–          Puerto Rico Islanders successfully defend CFU Club Championship title

Tempete FC out of Haiti played a spirited game of football last evening at the National Stadium Providence but that was not good enough to defeat the defending Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Champs, the Puerto Rico Islanders. The defending champs struck first as Jay Needham split the defense and had enough time to look as his ball hit the back of the Tempete net early in the first half.
The first taste of drama came when frustration crept into the Puerto Rican players following attacking and aggressive play by their competitors, saw a serious foul being committed against the opposing side causing a player to be sent off with a red card and awarding Tempete a penalty kick which found the back of the net.  Despite being one man down the Islanders defended well against Tempete until halfway into the second half when the Haitian goalkeeper was sent off for a vicious elbow to the face of the Puerto Rican striker. The penalty was however saved by the replacement keeper.
The game went into overtime and the attacking style showed by the Haitian club began to show as the defense broke down allowing the Puerto Rico Islanders to break through twice with Jonathan Fana being the architect during overtime to seal their victory 3-1 and retain the CFU title.The game which attracted the most attention of the small crowd was however the third place playoff between Trinidad and Tobago Defense Force and local football powerhouse Alpha “the hammer” United. The two teams played an evenly matched game for the first half. Dwight Peters struck first for United in the 50th minute of play which sent fans wild. Eight minutes later Richard Roy however equalized for Defense Force with a brilliant header.
The game went into a stalemate to the end and was forced into a penalty shootout to determine the final spot for the CONCACA F Champions League. The penalties was a nail biting, electrifying and emotional experience for Alpha fans but in the end the local side created history by becoming the first team from Guyana to advance into the CONCACAF Champions League by scoring 4 penalties against 3 for Defense Force. Though most fans were disappointed that the hosts did not take away the winning trophy, Alpha played according to plan to satisfy the local supporters. Speaking after the victory, a very emotional head coach Wayne “wiggy” Dover said the win was because “the goalkeeper and guys did great and executed well.” He added that adjustments were made to ensure that “the team follow the game plan and came out on top.”
President of Alpha United Odinga Lumumba shared similar sentiments adding that he will ensure that the team “will be stronger” as a result of the victory and is optimistic of advancing to the final stages of the Champions League. Head coach of Defense Force Colin Clarke said he was pleased to see the level of football being played in Guyana during the semi-finals and finals of the tournament by the local side stating that “soccer is improving in Guyana because I know this is a mainly cricketing country.”
The historic win by Alpha will serve to improve the level of football locally as well as showing the corporate community the levels football can reach if adequate funding is made available for the sport.

By Andrew Ross