Guyana takes on Jamaica in the Champions Cup; Lucia clashes with Grenada in the Supporters Cup semis

Although the International FGSL competition ended last week with Jamaica bagging the trophy, the FGSL still has plenty of soccer left. Another silverware will be fight for this Sunday as Jamaica squares up with Guyana in the Champions of Champions Cup and Saint Lucia will go head to head with Grenada in the second semifinal of the Supporters Cup.

Guyana will challenge Jamaica for the Champions of Champions Cup

2018 Int’l FGSL champions Jamaica will battle 2018 Players Cup titlists Guyana for the Champions of Champions Cup on Sunday at 4:15 p.m. at Old Boys High Athletic Field.

Guyana won the Players Cup by defeating Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 2-1 on August 12^th meanwhile Jamaica was crowned Int’l FGSL champions by blanking Grenada 2-0 last Sunday after an undefeated domestic season.

The Reggae Boyz center back Steven ‘Nicko’ Bailey expressed that hoisting the Int’l FGSL trophy last week gives him and his teammates a stronger desire to add one more piece of silverware to the team’s trophy cabinet.

"The taste of championship on Sunday gives us drive to actually go out and win another one," Nicko said.

He later added: "Our main objective is to win championships, ain't no slowing down for us we’re going to keep the same tempo from Sunday’s game against Grenada and carry it into this Sunday's cup final against Guyana.”

Jamaica center half Steven 'Nicko' Bailey. Brooklyn Soccer Nations Images

The defender went on to mentioning how crucial it is for his side to control the game in the midfield from the get-go as they did in the Int’l FGSL final when they outshot the Grenadians 8-0 in the first 22 minutes.

"We have a great midfield, Jermaine Hue in the midfield is always dictating the game. It’s very important to dictate the game form early on as always,” Nicko said.

"As I said each and every game we play our main objective is control the game from the start so I think that wouldn’t change in another final so we’re going to keep the same objective."

As for Guyana, despite losing their last match to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 3-2 in the Supporters Cup semifinal and falling out of the Int’l FGSL in the quarterfinals, they've been one of the strongest teams in the FGSL in the past two seasons.

The Golden Jaguars reached the Int’l FGSL final last year, losing to Grenada, and in their road to the Players Cup's silverware they overpowered Jamaica, 2017 Supporters Cup champions Saint Lucia 5-1 before narrowing past Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in the final 2-1.

"Guyana is always a good team," Nicko said, "they made it to the final last year and everything,” "Without putting nothing past them, you know, we’re on a high right now, we’re going to keep it that way."

Guyana is on a two-game non-losing streak versus the Jamaicans. They drew with The Reggae Boyz 1-1 in the Int’l FGSL on July 1st and as mentioned triumphed over them in the Players Cup on July 29^th.

Grenada will look to shrug off their loss in the Int'l final with a win over St. Lucia in the Supporters Cup semis

Saint Lucia will face Grenada in the second semifinal of the Supporters Cup on Sunday at 5:45 p.m. at Old Boys High Athletic Field.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines won the first semifinal last Sunday, edging Guyana 3-2 to clinch the final.

The Spice Boyz will go into the final just a week after falling to Jamaica 2-0 in the Int’l FGSL championship game.

"It’s never, never, never easy to lose a final," Grenada head coach Alidas Peters said. "But to lose a good final is somewhat could be acceptable just like what happened last Sunday. The performance of my team wasn’t really up to par. We started off slow."

However Peters stated that his side’s loss in the Int’l FGSL final won’t affect the players' performance negatively versus Lucia.

"For the game on Sunday, I mean, we have bounced back before. We’re ready for Saint Lucia—mentally I think they’re ready for St. Lucia," he said. "We played them some amounts of times this year and have come out victorious.

"So mentally it may be easy on us but you never know, us losing in a final could just be an added fuel for St. Lucia to put the pressure on us and try to come out with a victory but we’re ready for whatever it is on Sunday."

Grenada got the best out of Lucia twice this season, beating them 3-2 in the Champions of Champions Cup back on May 20^th and 4-1 in the Int’l FGSL on June 24^th.

Neverteheless The Pitons are undefeated in their last two outings against the Grenadians as they vanquished The Spice Boyz 2-1 in the Players Cup’s third place match on August 12^th and drew with them 3-3 in the same competition on July 15^th.

To avoid a third consecutive winless match versus St. Lucia, Peters noted that his side will have to overcome their struggle to start games strong.

"What I took from the game on Sunday [the Int’l FGSL final versus Jamaica] is what we’ve been preaching on all season, not to have a slow start," Peters said. "We definitely started slow on Sunday not like we did against Trinidad in the previous game the week before, that game we came out running, guns running, guns blazing.

"We definitely need to come guns blazing just the same way, so we can finish off with two tournaments on top [Grenada already won a Champions of Champions Cup this season] and come out with what you may call a moral victory because we definitely wanted to win last Sunday.”  

Unlike Grenada, St. Lucia won their last match as they slimmed past Trinidad and Tobago 3-2 in the Int’l FGSL’s third place match last Sunday. Moreover, The Pitons are not unfamiliar with racking wins in the Supporters Cup as they won the competition last year in its inaugural edition.