The national finals of the 2015 Guinness Street Football Challenge, carded for the Jean Pierre Complex in Port of Spain on Saturday, is expected to be a tough and highly competitive one.
This was the view expressed by Melicia Wilson-Aquing, marketing manager for Guinness Trinidad during the press conference of yesterday’s launch at the VIP Lounge of the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. “Of the eight finalists this year, seven of them have played in either one or several national finals previously, with Foundation Fire making an unprecedented fifth appearance since the inception of the tournament in 2011.
Debutant Macoya FC, the only newcomer to the tournament, will be making their first appearance after sealing the runner-up position in the Northeast zonal leg of the local playoffs.
Wilson-Aquing congratulated the finalists for the hard work and team effort they displayed during the playoffs and praised them for maintaining the high standard the Guinness brand is universally known for.
Also addressing the teams was head referee Inskip Carrington, who shared several adaptations to the rules of the tournament which he said was in keeping with those used for the regional finals. “Time-outs have been introduced and each team will be allotted two thirty-second time-outs per game, which can be used at the discretion of the teams.
Carrington said the concept if the time-outs will allow players to benefit from more coaching input and adjustments in strategy.
“The semi-finals and final will now be 20 minutes in duration, two halves of 10 minutes each, however, group fixtures remain at 15 minutes.”
He added that if there’s a tie at the end of regulation time during the knock-out phase of the tournament, there will be six minutes of extra time, three per half, as a means of deciding a winner. If extra time fails to produce a winner the each team will be granted three kicks from the penalty spot and if a winner is still not decided then the game goes to a sudden death penalty shoot-out.
Saturday’s proceeding kicks off at 6pm with Basic, Jr Mafia, Macoya FC and Drifterz Answer Back set to do battle in Group A while Group B will host Foundation Fire, Skillz That Killz, Touches and defending regional and national champions, Chelsea. The teams will be battling for a first prize of $20,000 with the second and third place teams taking home $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.
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Chelsea defend Guinness Street National title on Saturday.
By COLIN BENJAMIN (Newsday)
Defending national and regional champions Chelsea were placed in Group B, when the eight local teams were put in their respective groups at the launch of the 2015 Guinness Street Football Challenge, National Finals yesterday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium VIP Room, Mucurapo.
Heading the press conference was the Guinness Trinidad and Tobago Marketing manager Melicia Wilson and tournament Technical Director/Head of Referees — Inskip Carrington.
Carrington, in explaining the rules and regulations to the representatives of each team, spoke of the bad publicity this country has been getting recently due to the FIFA scandal.
He urged teams to control their fans considering that the games will be broadcast live to an international audience on the Digicel Sportsmax network.
The national finals kick-off at the Jean Pierre Complex on Saturday at 6pm and the cash prize for the first, second and third-placed teams are $20,000, $10,000 and $5,000 respectively. The winning side will compete in the Caribbean Championship final in Jamaica on July 27 and 28th, where the winner will receive US$6000.
In the competition’s five-year history, outside of Chelsea’s win last year, Trinidad and Tobago’s “Hills of Ice” won the title in St Vincent in 2013.
Group A: Basic, Macoya FC, Drifters Answer Back and Junior Mafia
Group B: Chelsea, Foundation Fire, Skills that Kills and Touches