IN football, there are varying views as to what it takes to win matches and eventually championships.

Some of the most astute minds in the game will say the best attack will deliver trophies, while some are of the opinion that the best defence is the key.

Today’s Super Cup final pits two very talented teams in defending champion Jamaica Çollege (JC) with the best defensive record and St George’s College (STGC) with the most potent and fluid offence.

JC’s tight and mean defence has been the best; conceding just one goal in the Super Cup, and seven in all competitions, a total of 14 games.

The man at the heart of that JC defence is Captain Allando Brown, and he will lead a backline including National Under-17 centre-half, the nononsense Ajeanie Talbott and Zeron Sewell. Behind them is the National Under-17 goalkeeper Jahmali Waite.

That is as solid as it can get. The JC skipper knows the task at hand will be a difficult one to contain the marauding St George’s attack, but he is undaunted.

“Jamaica College is all about guts, fight, determination,” he said.

“It’s a rough task, honestly — top strikers going up against top defenders.

They will have to come with their A game, but we are coming with our A-plus game,” said Brown “All season and even preseason we didn’t get a chance to play against St George’s, so I don’t really know what they are really about.

But I have seen them playing a lot of passing, and JC are about that. But we have more guts and we are going out there to deliver and hopefully we defend our title,” a confident Brown pointed out.

St George’s College’s attack might be hampered by the absence of their inspirational captain and ace goalscorer in Shevon Stewart, who is nursing a groin injury and has missed their last two games. But Brown is not taking anything for granted.

“Nobody is a treat to JC, so anybody they bring we are just going to do our job,” he noted. Meanwhile, with the absence of Stewart, more responsibility has fallen on the shoulders of the prolific Alex Marshall, who has been delivering all season and he is St George’s College’s top scorer with 21 goals.

“We have been playing with him from the start of the season, but we have other players that can do the job,” Marshall told the Jamaica Observer.

The ‘Light Blues’ have rattled up 63 goals in the Manning Cup, Walker Cup and Super Cup competitions, and have driven fear into most teams. But Marshall expects a tough game from the champions.

“We expect a very intense game,” said Marshall, who is a big fan of Barcelona’s Luiz Saurez and Mesit Ozil of Arsenal. “Jamaica College is a good quality team and we are going to play on a good quality field, so I expect a very good match,” said Marshall.

“I expect the JC defence to play organised and it’s not going to be an easy backline to pass,” said Marshall, who has been terrorising backlines he has faced this season with his mazy runs and trickery.

— Howard Walker