Lesroy W. Williams Observer Reporter
” (Basseterre, St. Kitts)”The British Virgin Islands National Football team failed once again in their bid to win a game in Group D of the 2008 Digicel Caribbean Championships at Warner Park, Basseterre, St. Kitts. Having lost bitterly to St. Kitts 4-0 on September 24, a much improved BVI team came out in full force against Barbados on September 26, but was unable to accomplish their dream. Barbados was determined to win and they did, with the results 2-1.” “The first game against St. Kitts, we used it as a practice game because prior to that game, we had no practice game before leaving the BVI,” Alex Green, captain of the BVI team said. “We learned from our mistakes and we came and put out a better performance”. “We had the chances and we didn’t make use of them. Barbados capitalized on theirs and they came out victorious. Both teams had chances, but at the end of the day, the better team won. Good luck to Barbados,” Mr. Green said. In speaking of his team’s loss, Mr. Green said, “I am disappointed but I have to accept it. There were a lot of positives for us, so we”ll go back to the drawing board. Hopefully, next time around we”ll put up a better performance.””” Coach of the Barbados team, Thomas Jordan, said that the BVI team put up a challenge. “We must give credit to the BVI team for putting up a good fight, even when they went down they still came at us and they didn’t give up and I give them credit,” Mr. Jordan said. “I think that we should have scored a lot more goals than we did.” Captain of the Barbados team, #14 Norman Forde, said that although they won, he was not happy with the results. “Really and truly, Barbados had the chances but we just didn’t score. On a good day, we would have probably beaten them 20 goals to one, but unfortunately we didn’t capitalize on the chances that we had,” Mr. Forde said. At the end of the first half, the score was tied at one each. Lashida Williams, #12, scored the first goal of the night in the 11th minute to give Barbados a jump start. In the 23rd minute, #16 Rohan Lennon, of the BVI, who was left alone in the box with the Bajan goalkeeper, out powered him and blasted the ball into the net to equalize the score 1-1. There was one yellow card in the game and no red cards. However, the game was much fiercer than the BVI-St.Kitts/Nevis game and had many injuries resulting in players having to leave the field on stretchers. Coming into the second half with one goal a piece, Barbados won a free kick eight minutes into the second half with #13 Mario Harte passing the ball to #10″ Forde, who evaded the goalkeeper, to seal the deal for Barbados with their second goal in the 53rd minute. The BVI was unable to comeback to win after that. The game ended with Barbados winning 2-1. Barbados took 11 shots at the goal while BVI took 7; BVI had two corner kicks and Barbados 13; BVI committed 8 fouls and Barbados 9; the BVI got one yellow card; and BVI had 3 off sides and Barbados 1. “Sunday, definitely will be a good game (with St.Kitts),” Captain Forde of the Barbados team said. “
