St George’s vs Charlie Smith

WITH the finals of the 2011 ISSA/Gatorade/Digicel/ Manning Cup competition set to be played this Saturday at the National Stadium not enough can be said about the hype surrounding this encounter.

Two of the competitions most fluid and free-scoring teams — St Georges College and Charlie Smith High — will challenge each other for the most coveted crown in corporate area schoolboy football.

Both teams had pretty great runs heading into this season’s final. Charlie Smith ended the first round at the top of their group with a record of nine wins and a draw from 10 matches for 28 points.

Over that period, they scored a league high total of 43 goals while conceding seven with their biggest win being 9-0 over Haile Selassie High.

They controlled their group in the second round as well, amassing a maximum nine points in brushing aside Waterford High, Bridgeport High and Spanish Town High. They again led the league in the goal-scoring category by firing home a total of nine goals in their three games, though conceding four.

Emerging from the group saw them face up against defending champions Jamaica College in the semi-finals. As expected, it was a keenly contested encounter but goals from Andrew Allen in the 26th minute and Lennox Russell in the 66th minute handed the team a 2-0 lead.

In true never-say-die attitude, JC rallied to level the encounter through strikes from Kenrick Jones and Taval Whittaker who scored a 22-yard bomber on 89 minutes. In extra time, Andrew Allen added an assist to his first-half strike as his defence-splitting pass allowed captain Javoni Simms to fire home and send his team to the finals for the first time in over a decade.

St George’s were in a similarly commanding mood in the first round, claiming eight wins and a draw from nine matches to amass 25 points.

The light-blue-clad boys from North Street also managed a large goal tally, getting on the score sheet 40 times while conceding just three. Their 11-1 win over Edith Dalton James was not only the biggest of the group, but the second biggest score line of the competition.

Showing the best combination of defence and attack, St George’s booked their place in the semi-finals by winning all three games of the second round, scoring eight unanswered goals. They easily brushed aside relatively strong teams in the likes of Camperdown, Calabar and Penwood.

The first semi-final on Friday saw St George’s facing up against Wolmer’s Boys.

The men from North Street were in a vibrant mood heading into the encounter, however, Wolmer’s had been growing in confidence over the course of the second round and considered themselves serious contenders for this year’s crown.

Since the beginning of the season, Kendon Anderson seems to be scoring at will and he was again on point for St George’s as his 14th-minute wonder strike them clip Wolmer’s 1-0. Though not a goal-studded contest as many would have expected, St George’s displayed their tactical superiority and remained on course for the title.

After a hard-fought spell of preparation and output, both teams are exactly where they expected to be at this stage of the season.

However, it is Saturday’s encounter that will define who has prepared the best and determine which team will stand at the pinnacle of this season’s ISSA/Gatorade/Digicel/Manning Cup.