One of three group winners from the 2014 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Club Championship, Guyana’s Alpha United FC enter into their second ever CONCACAF Champions League. Centered in the Guyanese capital of Georgetown, here are nine things to know about the Portland Timbers first CCL opponent.
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The team plays in the Guyana Football Federation Super League with Alpha United having won the last five straight league championships.
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Nicknamed “The Hammer,” Alpha United’s motto is “Unity Through Strength.”
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Guyana is the only South American country with a team in the CONCACAF Champions League. Aligned culturally with the West Indies and the Caribbean rather than the rest of South America, Guyana is also the secretariat headquarters for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) association of nations.
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Alpha United forward Gregory Richardson, a Guyana international, had a short period in MLS with the Colorado Rapids in 2009 (one game) before playing later that season with the Carolina Railhawks of the USL. He did make an appearance at PGE Park that year against the USL Timbers narrowly missing on a bicycle kick that then-defender, now-soccer analyst Ross Smith headed over the bar.
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Moreover, Richardson has 7 career CCL goals (2008/09: 5, with Joe Public FC; 2011/12: 1 with Puerto Rico Islanders; 2012/13: 1 with Puerto Rico Islanders)
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Kithson Bain, another Alpha United striker, also was a one-time member of the Carolina Railhawks (2011). A Grenada international, Bain has one career CCL goal when he played with Caledonia AIA of the Trinidad and Tobago Premier League.
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Alpha United is the first-ever Guyanese team to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League.
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Explored by the Spanish in 1499, settled by the Dutch in the 1600s and set as a British colony in 1831, Guyana became independent in 1966. Culturally, the population is a mix of Indo-Guyanese (East India) and Afro-Guyanese influences.
- Alpha United lost their first group stage 2014-15 CCL game to Honduras' Olimpia 1-0 in Georgetown (Highlights above).
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The word “Guyana” is an Amerindian word meaning “land of many waters.”
- Guyana’s national stadium, Providence Stadium, is the home field for Alpha United’s CCL matches. It was built to host group stage games of the 2007 West Indies Cricket World Cup.
