Lodge All-Stars win on opening night of group stage
…in G/town Zone of Guinness Greatest of the Streets
After the opening skirmishes in the recently returned Guinness Greatest of the Streets, the 16 teams that progressed following last weekend, headed into their campaign for further progression in the Georgetown zone last night.
The National Park tarmac was host to at least 500 fans of street football, as the group stage got underway. In the opening game Lodge All-Stars persevered to come out 3-2 victors in a challenging encounter with Albouystown.
LA, a youthful outfit started the game aggressively against a visibly unfit Albouystown side and were duly rewarded on one of their many forward forays with Carl Griffith netting in the sixth minute to open proceedings. As the opening goal bolstered LA’s confidence, they made two additional strikes through Anthonio McArthur and Chai Williams in the 11th and 15th minutes to put LA in sight of a comfortable victory with 4 minutes remaining to full time.
However, Albouystown added a frenzied finish to the game resulting in a Guinness Goal (a goal in the final three minutes counts as 2) off the boot of
Timothy Thomas in the 18th minute to give his side a glimmer of hope. The two minutes to the close of the game saw heated exchanges as LA pushed for a bigger lead while Albouystown looked for a winner. In the end, the Albouystown side came out the unfortunate losers.
In the second game of the night, the final outcome did not reflect the quality of the game as Make It Happen and North Ruimveldt played to an entertaining 0-0 draw. The two sides engaged in an epic midfield battle but could not find a game winner. The full time whistle saw the side sharing a point each for the drawn effort.
Although there was another draw in the third game, it was the best on the three with end to end action between North East and newcomers Rising Stars.
The opening minutes saw Rising Stars dominate proceedings which ultimately ended with Jamal Williams netting in the 3rd minute, however North East hit back in fitting fashion with Lennox “Tyga” Cort equalizing just a minute later.
Daniel Ross then added another goal in the sixth minute to push Rising Stars ahead once more but again, much like the
opening exchange, North East equalized once more through Akel Clark in the eight minute to tie things up once more.
Ross would again score in the 13th minute to push the Stars 3-2 up but Cort would answer in the 16th minute to raucous applause from the North East fans.
That saw the remaining four minutes keenly contested with both sides looking for a winner but to no avail.
Up to press time there were five remaining games to be played, the results of those games will be published tomorrow.
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