By Lesroy W. Williams Observer Reporter
” (Basseterre, St. Kitts)”Barbados mauled St. Kitts 3-1 to win Group D of the 2008 Digicel Caribbean Championships (DCC) at Warner Park on September 28. St. Kitts and Nevis came into the game full of hope but failed to deliver; they went to bed with hopes dashed but the promise of a brighter tomorrow. #7 George “yellow man” Isaac, with his impressive goal in the 13th minute for St. Kitts was not to be followed by another for the rest of the game. The “Sugar Boys” were sweetly dominating the game for the first 30 minutes and the jubilant crowd was flying high. Then, a breakthrough came for Barbados in the 35th minute when #3 Jonathan Strakers of Barbados, put some sand in the Sugar Boys sugar by rocketing the ball into the net. It was the great equalizer. The tall men from ‘the land of the flying fish” began to see a glimmer of hope and would not look back. They were not satisfied with an equalizer in the first half. Ten minutes after the Bajan’s first goal, #2 Barry Skeete, became the worst nightmare for the home team, when he powered the ball in the net in the 45th minute. The Sugar Boys knew that after the half-time break that they had extra work to do. They tried. Credit must be given to them. However, they would never recover. Worse yet, the lone striker for the St. Kitts and Nevis team, #7 George “yellowman” Isaac was given his walking papers with a red card in the 67th minute. The Sugar Boys fought to the end but would never recover. The Bajans finished the game in grand style when # 12 Lashida Williams, sent the ball flying into the goal. That would make it 3-1 in favor of Barbados. “Our guys have to understand that we have to keep playing to the end; that was one of our problems this evening. After thirty minutes we just stopped playing. We stopped doing the little things that made us successful in the first half hour,” Lester Morris, Coach of the St.Kitts and Nevis team said in responding to his team’s loss. “My team responded well, we stuck to the game plan,” Thomas Jordan, Coach of the Barbados team said in responding to their victory. “This is probably one of the best comebacks we have ever had as a national team,” Norman Forde, Captain of the Barbados team said. In speaking of improvements that he would like to see in his team’s performance, Forde said “I would like to see the team get more practice games, I would like to see the guys training a lot more because our set up is not that good in Barbados.” As runners-up, St.Kitts still advances to the second phase of the Championships and will compete against Group G in Trinidad. Group G consists of Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda. As group D winners, Barbados will go on to play in Group H in Cuba. The first phase of the DCC had Groups A, B, C, D, and E. Group A consisted of Curacao, Grenada and Aruba. In this group Curacao won with four points; Group B comprised Guyana, Suriname and Dominica. Guyana and Suriname were equal for first place with 4 points; In Group C, which consisted of Antigua, Cayman Islands, Bermuda and St.Martin, Antigua won with seven points; Group D consisted of Barbados, St.Kitts and Nevis and the British Virgin Islands and saw Barbados winning with 6 points; and Group E comprised of Martinique, St.Vincent and the Grenadines and Anguilla. Martinique won in this group with 6 points.” Twelve countries will compete in the second phase of this the Third Edition of the Digicel Caribbean Championships, four will be in each group with matches scheduled to be played throughout October and November in Guadeloupe, Cuba and Trinidad. The top two from each group will advance to the finals in Jamaica in December when they face defending Champions Haiti and the host country for the top prize of US $120,000.”
