Unity Cup Finals Day 2025, Saturday 31st May
My penultimate day of football for the 2025/26 campaign took me to the G-Tech Community Stadium, Kew Bridge, Brentford, West London, home of The Bees of course, but today it was hosting the finale of Unity Cup 2025, a friendly international tournament between two sides from Africa, and two sides from The Caribbean.
Africa was represented this year by Ghana & Nigeria, whereas the Caribbean was represented by Trinidad & Tobago and Jamaica, the two semi finals took place in midweek, both at the G-Tech, Tuesday evening saw Jamaica edge out Trinidad & Tobago 3-2 which included a stoppage time winner from the penalty spot & on Wednesday Nigeria edged out Ghana 2-1 with an own goal proving decisive in that one.
It all meant that Trinidad and Tobago, ranked 100th in the FIFA World Rankings, would take on 76th ranked Ghana in the third place play off, and that would be followed by the final between 63rd ranked Jamaica & the highest ranked side in this tournament, Nigeria (ranked 43rd) to see who would come out on top in this short competition.
The 2025 edition of this competition was the third edition, and Nigeria were defending champions so were looking to reclaim their crown, the competing sides are all countries with a large diasporas in London so they were all keen to get a glimpse of their international stars up close and personal in the country they all now call home, which set of fans would be the happier, let's find out.....
Third place play off - Trinidad & Tobago Vs Ghana
The first game of the day at 12:30pm saw the two sides defeated in the semi finals on Tuesday and Wednesday, both were looking to at least end the tournament with a win and you felt Ghana probably went into this game as favourites considering they were ranked 24 places above T & T in the world rankings.
The Caribbean's though had almost bridged a 37 place gap against Jamaica in the semi final and only lost that one late on, however, it was apparent early on in this contest that it would be a fairly comfortable afternoon for the African's, they flew out of the traps and were ahead in just the sixth minute when Leicester City's Jordan Ayew fired a brilliant effort into the bottom corner from outside the box.
And just six minutes later the Ghanaians doubled their lead when a corner from the right was nodded home in off the post by Razak Simpson, and you already felt how many it would be rather than if T&T would get back into the game, they were being totally overrun by their opponents and that continued to be the order of the day in the remainder of the first period.
T&T did have one big moment which could have seen them get back into the contest when after a free kick had been blocked, the ball was struck powerfully against the post, but this was the only time Ghana were troubled in the opening forty five minutes, and in fact it was Ghana who grabbed the next goal four minutes before half time to rubber stamp their victory already it seemed.
It was a lovely goal too, a lovely pass down the right saw the ball played across and helped along it's way to Mohammed Fuseini, who plays for newly crowned Belgian champions Union Saint-Gilloise, for him to run in and fire home beyond the keeper, and Ghana had a commanding three goal lead at the break and looked destined to go on and record a heavy win.
Could T&T at least grab a goal and make it a bit more competitive, sadly no, and in fact early on in the second half a terrible error from the keeper handed Ghana a fourth goal just before the hour mark, Lawrence Agyekum burst down the right hand side and sent a ball into the box which the keeper tried to claim but allowed the ball to go through his hands, his legs, and into the net, oops, and that folk was game over if it wasn't already.
All the sparse crowd (at that point) wanted was for a T&T goal, well unless you were following Ghana of course, but even they wouldn't of begrudged their opponents something to cheer, their side had totally outclassed their opponents in this one, but despite this the T&T supporters continued to dance to the calypso band behind one of the goals, they were having fun regardless of what was happening on the pitch.
The Caribbeans couldn't find a goal and could easily have conceded more, but in the end it ended with a four goal win for Ghana and they could at least celebrate third place and a win in this competition for 2025, they certainly played some excellent football in this contest and were comfortable winners.
Full time Trinidad & Tobago 0 Ghana 4
Anyway, as the final approached the atmosphere was building, it was clear to see that the final would be played in front of a much larger crowd and a noisy one too, things were going up a notch you could say, so this was good, let's see what happened in that final when it did eventually come round to 5pm!!!
The Final - Jamaica Vs Nigeria
If Nigeria had the slight tag of favourites and the higher ranking between the two sides, Jamaica would certainly have the advantage in the stands as I reckon it was about three to one in the Caribbeans favour, and boy were they loud and ready to party, but equally Nigeria were well backed too and their fans were just as loud and fun loving too, so even before the game began the atmosphere was electric to say the least, totally different to the first game for sure!!!
Both sides had won tough semi finals in midweek and both wanted to win this trophy, albeit a friendly one, as said before and earlier in this blog, Nigeria were defending champs, could The Reggie Boyz take the trophy from them or would the Super Eagles soar once again and repeat their 2024 success in London, well we were in for a real treat in this one.
The atmosphere had already made it a fun spectacle, but the sides began the game with real tempo, and it was Nigeria who began the better and were ahead after just nine minutes, dampening the Jamaicans mood somewhat, it was a ball into the penalty area that saw Moses Simon convert from close range, sending the Nigerian supporters wild.
However, if that quietened down the Jamaica faithful, it only did for about three minutes as the Reggie Boyz roared right back and levelled in the 12th minute when the pacey Renaldo Cephas burst past the full back like he wasn't there and sent a ball across the area where Kaheim Dixon was on hand to side foot home, and the noise that greeted that goal was deafening, it was an unbelievable noise and it had been some response from the Jamaica side, game well and truly on you could say, marvellous stuff!!!
Nigeria though to be honest were the better side for the remainder of the half, and did carve out openings which they could not capitalise on, but Jamaica were very dangerous on the break so kept their opponents honest for sure, it had been a belter of a contest so far and although Nigeria edged it I felt, it remained 1-1 as the half time whistle blew, however, the second half was to prove very entertaining indeed.
It looked as if Nigeria would begin to stamp their authority on this contest when they retook the lead eight minutes into the second period, it was a moment of class from AC Milan's Samuel Chukwueze who shifted the ball onto his left foot before firing a lovely effort into the bottom corner from the edge of the area, and again sending the Super Eagle fans joyous.
Could Jamaica respond? Sitting there I didn't think they could again, and it did seem that Nigeria could go on and win this one by more goals, but how wrong was I, because those Reggie Boyz, backed by a wonderful support, responded once again to going behind by levelling the contest up ten minutes later in the 63rd minute, and it was from the same source as the first leveller.
The brilliant Cephas once again burned his marker down the left and used his pace to go past him before again delivering a left footed ball into the box and perfectly for Jon Russell, who plays his football in England for Barnsley, who powerfully sent a first time left footed volley past the keeper and into the net, wow, it was now turning into an epic contest in front of one of the best atmospheres I've even witnessed, truly amazing and a pleasure to be there.
Could anyone win it before the dreaded penalties? Nigeria had their moments trust me but were lacking that killer touch, and with Jamaica also threatening to break and potentially grad a winner themselves, boy was it frantic at times, which made for a very very entertaining contest, with the crowd really getting into it as they had been throughout, you just do not get this sort of atmosphere at a game in the UK, and with both sets of fans sitting with each other in most parts of the stadium enjoying the contest with each other, that was certainly unique.
Alas, their was to be no winner meaning the contest and Unity Cup 2025 would be decided from the penalty spot, both sides converted their first three kicks pretty comfortably meaning 3-3 heading into the fourth penalty each, sadly for Jamaica they missed their fourth one, too much height seeing it glance off the bar and over, Nigeria netted their fourth meaning Jamaica had to net their fifth, which they did, meaning 4-4.
That left the Super Eagles with match point, and if Christanus Uche, who plays in Spain for Getafe, could net the final kick, Nigeria would reclaim their crown, and Uche duly converted to see Nigeria take Unity Cup 2025 honours and end what had been a pulsating final, winning it 5-4 on penalties.
Full time Jamaica 2 Nigeria 2 (Nigeria won 5-4 on penalties)
Well, what a day that was, played in beautiful weather all day too, and the final was a epic encounter played in front of a crowd that enjoyed it all together regardless of who they were supporting which led to a carnival atmosphere, I tell you something, those fans know how to support their team and know how to dance and have fun too, it was really refreshing to see and it's what it's all about isn't it, marvellous stuff, very enjoyable indeed!!! One of the best atmospheres I've been in, amazing.....
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