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FOOTBALL
Qualifiers off to goal fest by Robertson Henry
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KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Monday September 10th, 2007
– The FIFA CONCACAF Group E Under-23 Olympic Qualifiers got off to a goal fest
last night at the Victoria Park in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as eleven goals
were scored on the opening night.
In the opening game, Saint Lucia stormed back from being 3-1 down, to record a
hard fought victory to equalize 3-all, after a lacklustre first half.
The Saint Lucians went into the lead in the 23rd when Kervin Augustin got one
pass the advancing Grenadian goalkeeper, but the Grenadians aggressive
approach kept the Saint Lucians on the defensive from then on.
Marcus Julien equalized for the Grenadians in the 25th, followed by goals from |
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Saint Lucia team observe a minute of silence |
Nickson Baptiste in the 31st
and Shane Rennie in the 50th.
The Grenadians second goal
came off a contentious corner
kick after the ball was seen to
have missed the defenders, but
the official ruled otherwise. |
The kick was taken, curled into the far post, beating custodian Randy Poleon as
he attempted to flick the ball over the crossbar.
The third goal came off a misjudged pass from Poleon to a defender, who was
unable to control the difficult pass. The Grenadians gained possession, and as
the saying goes, the rest is history.
Saint Lucia’s head coach Denis Lukens in a post game interview gave credit to
the Grenadians who made use of the aerial ball, and was aggressive in tackling,
which earned them three cautions. “Credit must go to our opponents who were very good,” Lukens stated. |
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Saint Lucia’s #7 Nyhime Gilbert skips over another aggressive challenge by a Grenadian player |
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The Grenadians defended in pairs, making life very hard for the Saint Lucian attack |
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Nyhime Gilbert off a dead ball situation pulled one back for the Saint Lucians in the 58th minute, and then Troy Prospere collecting a pass from Shervon Jack, left the Grenadian custodians sprawled on the ground as he booted the equalizer into the back of the nets in the 71st minute.
“I have a lot of confidence in our team,” added Lukens. “I do not think we played particularly well but hopefully in the next games we will have more success.”
Carlyle Fraser the Grenadian Assistant Coach was not too happy with the outcome, having to share points with Saint Lucia.
“The team played according to the game plan in the first half, and having stood up to the game plan, we got goals out of it,” he stated. He admitted that as the game progressed, “we stared losing it in little bits and pieces,” something he pointed out that has to be worked on. |
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Vincentian captain # 4 Morgan Chester
keeps close tabs on Dominica’s # 17
\George Omerald |
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The home team St. Vincent and the Grenadines from the opening whistle went full
throttle at their opponents Dominica, but was only able to record the game’s
opening goal in the 12th minute.
The young Dominican team, clearly lacking experience held their own in the face of
the Vincie onslaught to go into the interval with the score at 1-nil.
Then came the change in fortunes, as Sam Thaddeus with strikes in the 51st, 58th,
and 64th minutes respectively, scored the tournament’s first hat-trick, while
Jonathan Abel pulled one back for the outplayed Dominicans in the 55th minute;
the final score being 4-1.
Coach of W Connection in Trinidad and Tobago Stuart Charles Fevrier who was in
St. Vincent scouting for players, pointed out that if the Dominican team is kept
together and not disbanded, and the Dominica Football Federation invest in them,
they will be a powerful forced in the near future as they would have gain strength
through experience.
Meanwhile during the opening day’s games, all flags on the ground were flown at
half-mast, and a minute of silence was observed in memory of the passing of Saint
Lucia’s Prime Minister the Right Honourable Sir John Compton. |
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