 A schoolboy from Baloo, he says, people are ready, you know. All right, then, Maneen Cup, Oliver Yashil yo make willing cup, they watch the Champions Cup and fancy season. Urban area schoolboy football in Jamaica was shaken to its core on Saturday as 31-time champions. Jamaica College failed to make the semifinals of the Maneen Cup for the first time since 2012. I don't know why Lance is doing that. You can't see what Lance is doing, something right now that he shouldn't be doing. No. I wonder why. I'll explain in a moment, but go ahead. Yeah, can I just continue with the script, please? Yes, thank you. So JC, who are reigning Maneen and Champions Cup winners, drew 1-0 with St. George's College, falling short of the three points needed to reach the last four of the Maneen Cup. This means the schoolboy football powerhouses will be unable to defend both of their crowns and can now only vie for the Walker Cup. Here is head coach Davion Ferguson and how Saturday's encounter played out. Created a lot of chances. Even the last minute, we had a 1-1 with the goalkeeper, half a ricochet, which we should have scored. For such as football, you win some, you lose some, and this one today is one that we didn't win. We came out here today with our plan. We created enough chances, but we just didn't put them away. We have had some issues up top, and it showed here too that the judges came, they came with a resilient spirit, and they deserve to go through. Yeah, on the flip side, St. George's College returned to the semi-finals for the first time in five years, and their coaching staff was elated. You know, most sacred to Jamaica College, something we're prepared for. We prepare today that we're going to suffer a lot today. It's a very quality team, JC, not taking none away from it. But it's a case of defense versus attack today. Attack with defense totally today, and credit must be given to the juror in goal today. It was fantastic between the six today. I think he made a difference for us today. Yeah, Marcel Gale, the coach of St. George's College, Neva Berthesville, the technical director, our in-house football analyst, Leger Williams, that joins us in studio. Good afternoon and welcome, Leger. By the way, Mr. Prediction Guru, you got it wrong. You said that Jamaica College would get through and that Neva Berthesville better celebrated as much as possible on Friday for his birthday, suggesting that he wouldn't have anything to celebrate on Saturday. It was inferred. It was inferred. You didn't say that, Lige, but it was inferred. Can we take the tag away from him until he starts getting it right? Wow! Yeah, I'll soon get to that. But first, Lance Whittaker. Chapeau, in your opening presentation, because I know where you stand on this issue, yes, it was conspicuous, in my opinion, the way you said Jamaica College failed to reach the semifinals. The emphasis and the vigor with which you read was startling for me, but not surprising, given the fact that it is what you wanted to happen. It is what I predicted to happen and also... You said vigor? Yes. You want our producers to replay the presentation? You read the tea and you read the forescript. You didn't say one like that. Exactly. You know what? Let's talk about the football. Lige, how did Jamaica College not win that game on Saturday because they had all the opportunities in the world and just couldn't put the game away? Well, their head coach summed it up perfectly, I think. He said that they were having attacking issues all season. I'm not 100% behind him in that instance because they scored so many goals, but I think it was a similar thing where, once again last year, they got away with it because they put in Zimini's towards it and that really added more of an attacking flair towards the end of the season. But I think we see a similar thing this season where we're not seeing any JC players score a boatload of goals, like how we see Brandt Burkett scoring for St. George's, some of the players for, say, Andrew Technical, even some of the players for Moana. I think they were sharing the goals around because they didn't have that out-and-out number nine. Giovanni Taylor didn't really announce himself like we would have hoped that he would have this season. And then you mentioned the chances. There was chance after chance after chance. I counted eight clear. When I say clear, I mean eight clear-cut goalscoring opportunities that they didn't take. So I think Jamaica College were extremely unfortunate. A lot of criticism, I think, would go towards their coach Davion Ferguson after this loss. But I think if you watch this game, the only thing a coach can do is put his team in advantageous positions to score some of these goals. And he definitely had a plan. I think he out-coached St. George's by the end of the day. If a team doesn't take the chances, there's nothing you can do about that. And especially because Dujon Davis, Dujon Davis in that St. George's goal was quite spectacular. Everything just went against Jamaica College on the day, but it has to be said, they put themselves in this position to even need three points in this do or die game, this do or die situation. So I think at the end of the day, they can't blame anyone but themselves, but it's definitely a hard pill to swallow. Yeah, when you look at the chances, and you said you counted about eight opportunities, clear-cut opportunities that they failed to capitalize on, but we're talking about different players who were missing these opportunities. I think Howell, there was one for Howell. Just trying to remember correctly, there was one for a Marley King. Yeah, Marley King, Mr. Couple. If not two, the number 20 had a clear header. Yeah, they left about Mr. Few that chance at the end, the one that Davis... From Lawrence. Yeah, exactly Lawrence. There were so many chances. It's not something that they can really quantify. If you watch the game, then you would understand because I was in the St. George's section of the game and I was there with the St. George's fans. They were nervous all the way through. A lot of complaints, a couple of altercations, breaking out people saying take off, take off, they're not doing anything. Take off, they're their best players. There was that type of panic in the St. George's ranks. But I think St. George's in the end actually. I think they defended really well. As I mentioned, their goalkeeper was fantastic. So St. George's, I'm not going to say they deserve to go to the next round. But JC has to rule those opportunities because they're definitely a better side. I think that without a doubt they're a top four team in the Manning Cup. Yeah, your report card on the way St. George's College approached that game on Saturday. Well, you see, football is a mental game. St. George's came into the game knowing that okay, we all need a draw to go through. So just after that, when they come into the game, they aren't going to, and they know the threat that Jamaica College have as well. So when they started playing, they started the game really brightly actually. But then once Jamaica College got into their flow, they can see a couple of chances. They're saying to themselves now, all right, hold on, we need to calm things down. We need to try and see if we can ride out this storm. And then especially now, JC missed all of those chances in the first half, and then St. George's College get that penalty, they get that penalty to go up. After that, it's just all hands to the pump for them. They're just trying to defend that, which isn't usually a St. George's College strong suit. But they did it, they rode out the storm and all created them, their coach spoke, their coach spoke after the game about how the toughness of the unit has really improved, and I have to agree with them. Yeah, how about Brian Burkett? Because there is no the school of thought that he doesn't come to the party in these massive games. So he has scored a lot of goals, 39 goals now and is on the 19th schoolboy football career. But I keep hearing when the game is big, he doesn't perform as well. Your thoughts? Well, on a usual scale, I don't like to subject attackers to that school of thought because if Jamaica College is dominating the game in all aspects, the midfield, St. George's midfield struggled yesterday. I don't want it to... I want to say it like how Chapo said failed. They struggled on Saturday. They were completely outrun, completely outclassed in all aspects, and Brian Burkett plays in a pseudo, false nine striker position in this Jamaica College 3-5-2, 5-3-2 as it was on Saturday. In the St. George's College. For St. George's College, I beg your pardon. So if he's struggling to get the ball so often, we saw him drop deep into defensive positions deep in midfield to get on the ball. So if he's struggling to get on the ball, I can't say that he didn't impact the game because at the end of the day, when he got his chance, he got one chance for the whole game. It was a penalty. He did really well to dispatch it. And he worked so hard for his team. So I'm not with the school of thought to say that he goes in big games. And like how we're on the subject, I think that there's unnecessary pressure placed on Brian Burkett as well because at the end of the day, yes, he's a fantastic player. But I think, and I'm not quite sure, maybe because he isn't playing in an attacking position anymore, but I think all of the pressure under St. George's unit player-wise should fall under the hands or at the feet of Adrian Rejunia because Adrian Rejunia is a player that has played in the Ling Cup Final for Cavalier. The Jamaica Premier League Final for Cavalier started both of those games. He's the captain of this team and in all estimation, in my opinion, he's the best player of this team. He's playing in that extremely important defensive midfield position. He's the one who's supposed to dictate tempo. He has been playing well, yes, but I think yesterday he may have struggled in, or Saturday I beg your pardon, he may have struggled in some organizational ways. So I think if St. George's are to overcome Mona and overcome whoever they were to face in the final, say for instance, they were to come against a high del with Ronaldo Barrett. Adrian Reed has to be that linchpin those games against those quality midfielders. It's interesting that you say that quickly because I actually thought Adrian Reed had a good game on Saturday and I think was a large part of the reasons St. George's College were able to hold off Jamaica College despite the many opportunities that they got. So it's interesting to hear you put it like that. I'm not saying that he had a bad game. I'm saying that he's better than what he produced. He's better than what he showed in addition to that because I mentioned that he was a good team. That's a massive compliment by the way because I thought he was pretty good. I think that in terms of the mentality of the team when you're playing in that position, especially when you're playing in front of a back three, a young guy, you have wing backs are trying to stay as wide as possible. He has to be that linchpin, especially in terms of in possession stuff. Too often you saw when St. George's got the ball, it was a bit scared from them. They just wanted to hoof it long. No one there to take responsibility in the middle. I'm not saying that he didn't defend stoutly. He didn't organize the defense well and shield the back line well at times. But I'm saying in possession, the game could have been much easier for St. George's College team that we know that they are adept at playing the ball well if he could have taken more control in those instances. And I think he's going to have to if they're going to overcome in the semifinal in the Champions Cup and just generally going forward for St. George's College. Yeah, I listened to everything that you've said so far. The struggles, the positives with the team. Can this St. George's College team go all the way? Well at this point, I think that all four of the teams left in the Manning Cup aren't a similar playing field, I think. I don't want to be that guy. I really don't want to be that guy because I know a lot of the fans of the other teams are going to come at me. But I think Mona with standing, I think two of the three best teams in this Manning Cup competition are out. And I know people are going to say, okay, they went through the quarter-final round and they didn't make it through and it was three games that they had to get through and they couldn't do it. But we know how football is we know football is round. We know the ball is round. Say, Andrew Technical and Jamaica College, despite of how boring it may seem because they've been dominant for so long, they were two of the three best teams in this competition. Now, I'm not saying that other teams don't deserve to be with you because at the end of the day, other teams had to beat them. But with that being said, I think that the rest of the teams quality-wise, I think, can have comfort in the fact that I think that all of them are on a similar level although I would put Mona as the favourites. I think now is the time that we're going to see a lot of key players. I mentioned Adrian Reed, I mentioned Bran Burkett, I mentioned Ralda Barrett. Of course, we have the Mona players as well. I think it's now KC. I think it's now we're going to see some real quality shine through because it's going to have to be individuals and maybe some excellent coaching performances as well that determines the winner in this Manning Cup. I put it to you, ladies and gentlemen, that what you just heard for the last minute and a half was the prediction guru struggling after getting it badly wrong at the weekend. By the way, the semifinal line-up will see Mona taking on George's College and Heidel will play Kingston College in the other semifinal and by the way, the last time, which was the first time Heidel made the semifinals of the Manning Cup, they got all the way to the final by the way, it was 2012 which was the last time Jamaica College did not make the semifinals of the Manning Cup before now. So it seems as if you can't get both Heidel and JC in the semifinals of the Manning Cup. St. George's College won that final. And that's still a possibility, so let's see. Yes, we could have 2012 all over again. Let's take a break. When we return, we'll be talking about the Dacosta Cup. Yeah, stay with us.