Leading Guyana
club side Alpha 'The Hammer" United will leave tomorrow for Trinidad
where they will engage host club San Juan Jabloteh and Puerto Rico's
River Plate in the 2nd round of the Caribbean Football Union Champions
League Qualifying competition at the Marvin Lee Stadium.
The CFU had announced last week that Alpha will trade places with Leo
Victor of Suriname in the second round allowing the matches to be
staged as schedule by avoiding travel delays due to U.S. restrictions
for the Guyanese club.
Alpha United were to play in Group A
in Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, but visa requirements for Guyanese
made it unlikely the club would be able to travel to the island for the
April 13-17 group stage on time.
Leo Victor will move into Group A
along with the Puerto Rico Islanders and Racing Gonaives of Haiti,
while Alpha move to Group C in Marabella, Trinidad, and face local side
San Juan Jabloteh and River Plate of Puerto Rico.
The other two groups remain
unchanged, Group B to play alongside Group A in Bayamon, Puerto Rico,
with Tempete FC of Haiti, Bayamon FC and Avenues United of St. Vincent
and the Grenadines.
Group D will play as scheduled in
conjunction Group C with Joe Public of Trinidad, Systems 3 of St.
Vincent and Walking Boys of Suriname.
The third and final stage comprising
of the four second-round group winners will be played April 28-May 10
with the top three teams qualifying for the Preliminary Round of next
season’s CONCACAF Champions League.
Alpha warmed up for Trinidad with a
resounding 8-1 win over Buxton on Saturday evening last at the Enmore
Community Centre Ground in the Guyana Football Federation Super League
competition.
Club President Odinga Lumumba said he
was very impressed with the clinical performance by his side and is
satisfied that they are beginning to be more efficient in defence and
more forceful in attack.
“The guys looked really well against
Buxton who you know were leading the standings and were also unbeaten.
I admired the way they played and am looking forward to a good showing
in Trinidad notwithstanding that they will be coming up against tough
opposition.”
One of Guyana’s leading forwards in
Anthony ‘Awo’ Abrams is back in the fray after serving a ban instituted
by the Guyana Football Federation.
Abrams’ record up front is well known
to all and will definitely be an asset to the Alpha side. Head Coach
Wayne Dover certainly has more options but at the same time will have
his work cut out in finding the right combination to start since there
is not time for the team to settle in, they have to hit the ground
running in Soca Land.
Jamaican’s Oneke Ford, Treyon
Williams along with the likes of Dwight Peters, Elton Brown, Dwain
Jacobs, Shawn Bishop, Kelvin McKenzie, Captain Howard Lowe and
Goalkeeper Ronson Williams will all have to be focused and click from
the word go.
The local club side has already done
better than last year by advancing to the 2nd round and will be aiming
to ride on their success even further.
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