Corona Invitational Football Tournament; A success filled with surprises

Sep 20, 2017 Sports, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...lled-with-surprises/

The Corona Invitational Football tournament for teams in Georgetown that concluded on Sunday night, in its inaugural year, was a major success with many surprises.

The best surprise was the way in which the tournament was capped off in emphatic fashion as Police destroyed GFC 4-0 in the final. It included surprise performances like Dwain Jacobs’ in the champions’ final match, surprise runs like Northern Rangers unbeaten streak to the semifinal and last but not least, surprisingly good conditions during match-days from the bi-polar weather in Guyana. In addition, the tournament was well organized by Petra with all matches starting on time while the officiating was excellent throughout with little to none issues with the referees.
Best Surprise
Police Football club had lost to Western Tigers and GFC during round-robin action in group B and they managed to qualify for the playoffs despite those losses. Police FC, which had won the Mayor’s Cup last year, knew what it took to win a major title and they proved their worth by reaching the semifinals and defeating Western Tigers 1-0. Tigers were pegged as the favourites to win the tournament, but in a very aggressive encounter in which 4 players were sent off (two from each team), Police FC overcame all the odds and needled Tigers to reach the final.
In the final, all bets were on GFC that had the advantage of playing at home, added with the psychological advantage after defeating Police during the round-robin stage, along with the fact that two starters from Police were suspended after receiving red cards during their semifinal clash, yet Police prevailed. Police were also without starter, midfielder Philbert Moffat who sustained an injury in the fiery semifinal against Tigers and against all these odds Police didn’t only win the match but they completely dominated GFC with an empathic 4-0 victory. No one could’ve predicted that score line.
Surprise Performance
Often times pre-game, players speak about elaborate performances that their fans can expect and most times they don’t deliver immensely, if they do managed to deliver at all. Captain of the Police FC, 30-year-old Dwain Jacobs, a former Golden Jaguars forward and two time Kashif and Shanghai MVP, expressed disgust in losing matches despite his team’s ascension to the final of the Corona Invitational tournament and promised better chance conversion in the final.
And Jacobs did exactly that as he exercised his clinical ability to ruthlessly bag a first half hat-trick which singlehandedly brought GFC to their knees. Jacobs’ first goal which he hit with finesse to the bottom right of GFC’s goal in the 8th minute on Sunday would’ve been enough for victory as the opposition didn’t manage a reply with a solitary but tame shot on goal during the second half.
With the Golden Jaguars encamping 28 locally based players for the international friendly away at Grenada on October 7th in which 3 are forwards including the 35-year-old Gregory Richardson, it’s was surprising that 30-year-old Jacobs was not considered for the camp but the Striker shared with Kaieteur Sport that we wasn’t available for national selection.
Surprise Run
Even more surprising than Police FC’s triumph in this tournament was the miraculous run by Northern Rangers football club who played unbeaten almost unnoticed to their semi-final berth. The youthful squad comprising of full-time cricketer Steven Sankar, although in the weaker of the two groups during the round robin stage, still had to get the job done and they did so with convincing wins against Eastveldt 2-0, Pele 3-0, Santos 3-1 and Flamingo 2-0.
Rangers continued to ride their luck in the quarterfinal against Camptown when striker Sunil Logan continued his goal scoring form from his previous match against Flamingo and opened the scoring in the 19th minute. However, Camptown equalized within the first half and the match eventually expired to penalties with the score deadlocked at 1-all and Rangers squeezed past them 4-3 from the spot.
In the first semi final of the Corona tournament, all of Northern Rangers luck ran out in a 3-0 loss when they faced a stumbling block in GFC that was a class above them in all departments.
Rangers had a good chance of finishing third in the competition but their striker Sunil Logan wasn’t on song in the playoff against Western Tigers in Sunday night’s opener and he failed to convert no less than 3 very good opportunities. Nevertheless, Northern Rangers run in this tournament was surprising and commendable with their 4th place finish.
Good Weather
Georgetown is known to have very unpredictable weather and this tournament which ran for over two months was not affected by rain. This was enjoyed as early as the 3rd set of round robin matches following a pause for the CONCACAF Under-17 Women World cup qualifiers, until the business end of the tournament, the knockouts. Although it did rain on some match days, the ground staff of the Georgetown Football Club, where all the matches of the Corona football tournament were played, did well to get the venue match-ready.