By Nodley Wright, Staff ReporterTHERE SHOULD be a 'Rumble in the Jungle' this afternoon as four football heavyweights in the Kingston and St. Andrew Football Association (KSAFA) confederation meet in eliminators to determine the title contenders.
In the 4:00 p.m. curtain-raiser of the Jackie Bell Knock Out semi-finals at Tony Spalding Sports Complex, West Kingston's Tivoli Gardens go head to head with their perennial rivals Waterhouse from South Western St. Andrew. They will be followed at 6:00 p.m. by a battle between Arnett Gardens out of South St. Andrew and Harbour View from East Kingston.
In the early encounter, Waterhouse will seek to exact sweet revenge on Tivoli Gardens. In the second of two meetings between the teams this season, Tivoli Gardens were 2-0 victors thanks to an outstanding display from forward Christopher Nicholas. The first clash ended 0-0.
Waterhouse were awarded the title last year after crowd disturbance halted the semi-final between Tivoli Gardens and Arnett Gardens with Tivoli leading 2-0. Nicholas, who scored a brilliant goal in that game, had good reason to feel robbed of a title as his team looked in unbeatable form.
Today is the day to set that record straight.
"I'm very confident of beating Waterhouse," said Tivoli coach Geoffrey Maxwell who guided Waterhouse to the National Premier League. "I think the advantage Tivoli have is my knowledge of the Waterhouse team. I know what all Waterhouse players are capable of doing," he said.
Maxwell said that a weakness in the Waterhouse team was their lack of quality forwards. Because of this, the team, he said, had become overly reliant on captain Irvino English and the midfield pair of Damion Powell and Damion Williams.
Waterhouse coach Calvert Fitzgerald realises that there are weaknesses in his team but is expecting nothing less than the best from his charges.
"It's kind of strenuous because we've a very small squad and to be playing two games a week it's taking a toll on the players, but we have to play so we have to go out there and give it our best shot," said Fitzgerald.
The Harbour View/Arnett Gardens clash is a rematch. In fact they have met so many times they should be tired of seeing each other's faces. In this season alone they have met three times with Arnett Gardens winning twice and drawing the other.
"It's more a mental than tactical game because we both know each other so well. I don't think there's anything on the tactical side that we do not know about each other," said Harbour View coach Donovan Hayles ahead of today's game.
One change he will be forced to make is to find a replacement for captain and central defender Damion Stewart who fractured his jawbone on Sunday.
Arnett's coach, Jerome Waite, is cognisant of the fact that his team has not won a knockout title for some time. To address that matter it will have to score goals today as Harbour View have always scored against them.
