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| SKN U-17 Team Advances in FIFA World Cup Tournament |
| By Sheena Brooks |
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Under-17 national football team |
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The St. Kitts-Nevis Under-17 national football team has advanced to the next leg of the FIFA World Cup championship.
The team of exuberant athletes returned home from Antigua on Monday (July 26) after trouncing two competitors and drawing with a third. SKN drew the match against host country Antigua last Wednesday (July 21) 2-2, then went on to beat St. Martin 7-1 on Friday (July 23), and Anguilla 12-0 on Sunday (July 25).
Coach Al Edwards told The Observer that after sizing up the three teams in their preliminary round, the team had surmised St. Martin and Anguilla would put up the least competition.
“After we drew 2-all with Antigua, we figured it would come down to goal difference between us. After that it became a matter of calculation and probabilities,” he said.
Edwards informed that at the end of Day Two, his team was down by a goal difference of 3, Antigua having accumulated 9, and St. Kitts-Nevis 6.
“Antigua beat Anguilla 10 to 1, giving them a goal difference of 9 when we had a goal difference of 6. We were in a situation where we had to score plenty goals and technically we had the weakest team, Anguilla, to play. We beat them 12 goals to nil,” he said.
He explained that following their victory over Anguilla, Antigua would have had to win against St. Martin and score 9 goals to tie with St. Kitts-Nevis and 10 goals to win the round.
“Needless to say we watched that last match with Antigua and St. Martin minute by minute, play by play. It was nil-nil at half time and by then we knew it was highly improbable for Antigua to score 10 goals in 45 minutes when they hadn’t been able to score any in the first half,” he said.
Of the four groups of four teams, St. Kitts-Nevis advanced and will head to Trinidad in August where the competition will be decidedly tougher.
“We leave for Trinidad on the 16th and our first match is on the 18th against Bermuda. There are eight teams in this second round, but only four in our group: St. Kitts-Nevis, Trinidad, Bermuda and Cuba. The other group plays in Jamaica. From these eight, the top five teams will advance; the two top teams from each group and the team which does the best after that. We are hoping to make the top five,” he said.
Edwards was optimistic about the team’s chances in Trinidad but said he would also be realistic.
“We have a fair to good chance, I wouldn’t say great, of advancing this round. I think we can beat Bermuda and normally we are at the same level with Trinidad, so we may get four to six points in those first two games. Cuba however, will probably give us a lot of trouble, but then you never know, people have good days and bad so we’ll see what happens,” he said.
The SKN coach revealed that since returning home, victorious team St. Kitts-Nevis has been practicing twice daily and will continue to do so until it comes time to travel. He said even their down time would be spent together as a team to encourage and foster synergy among the players.
Edwards extolled the young men and said the excitement from winning the preliminary round was almost palpable. He said this enthusiasm could only benefit the team in the upcoming matches.
“They are feeding off the thrill of the win in Antigua and we want to encourage that positive energy going forward in the tournament. The entire team was outstanding but I have to make special mention of top players like Kyron Phillip, Kimani Rogers, Glen Samuel, and Austin Henry. We have a good offensive and defensive game so they are going to hone those skills during practice, so team St. Kitts-Nevis can beat the odds and make it to the final lap of this FIFA Under 17 World CUP Championship,” he posited. |
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