NOW THAT WAS A DAMN COACH!!! When last any local side performed like this even in defeat? And draw 20,000 people??? Theobald was like a man posessed, and Hardest show up for every game. Pure Pride. Latapy could do that?
Wim was a boss! Like him or not he had this team hopping.
But check papagraph 7. If allyuh think Makan shaky now...
From scocawarriorstt.com
Congratulations Haiti! Well Done T&T. That sums up the final of the 2007 Digicel Caribbean Cup which ended with back door qualifiers Haiti capturing the winners prize with a 2-1 victory over Trinidad and Tobago at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Tuesday night.
The Haitians promised conviction and they gave it from the get go and passion and pride was expected from T&T but it came a wee bit too late as skipper Densill Theobald and his teammates could only acknowledge the fans with their shoulders dropped moments after the closing whistle.
The Haitians had to qualify via a playoff win over Bermuda but they were last ones jumping as skipper Richard Pierre Bruny lifted the coveted Digicel Cup and they collected the USD$120,000 after 90 plus minutes of pulsating action.
For all it’s worth, the highly inexperienced T&T team attracted maybe the largest crowd ever by an outfit comprising only one overseas-based professional who spent the evening on the bench – Scott Sealy. Only the “Strike Squad” with so many home-based non professionals would have played in front a bigger crowd. There was an estimated 20,000 at the venue on the night and many would have still left with a gut feeling that the team did not totally disappoint them with its performance.
And head coach Wim Rijsbergen could feel disappointed but also somewhat satisfied that his squad of players, still familiarizing themselves to the international stage, was able to produce such a fighting and especially commanding second half performance when they had close to seventy percent of the possession and created chances with it. Too little to late though. Haiti had its best team and while earning marks for grit and vigor in their game had to depend on two goals which would have maybe not scored on a sharper defense plus T&T had anything but it’s best available team on the pitch.
But credit to the Haitians who stuck to their plan. Pierre Bruny marshaled their defense and their goalkeeper Fenelon Gabard pulled out all the stops in the second half as T&T went pressing for an equalizer. That followed a first half which had seen both teams starting at a laid back pace but T&T doing that more so.
The hosts were stunned on 21 minutes when Cadet Eliphene was allowed to turn too easily with room by Makan Hislop on the right and squared for Brunel Fucien to then see his shot blocked by goalie Jan Michael Williams. The stop was not clean enough though as the rebound was quickly pounced on by Boucicaut Alexandre for the opening goal.
Haiti realized that they had done just what the doctor ordered and they were more than ever prepared to starve the T&T side. But Rijsbergen men got their act going and should have had a goal when a right side corner was turned into the goal but by the hand of Seon Power. Then Kerry Baptiste shot wide from a good opening and Kerwyn Jemmot had his effort saved.
The second half was off and most were expecting a T&T resurgence and Theobald was desperate to lead from the front, going at everything but doing it cleverly and with purpose. Strikers Gary Glasgow and the hardworking Darryl Roberts were not being allowed to find their footing as much as the earlier games and Rijsbergen was forced into introducing Joel Bailey to deepen the attack as T&T searched for leveling item.
Bailey wasn’t on as yet though when Haiti handed the killer blow. A neat move on the left, a well thought out run led to the T&T defense being left flat footed and Williams could only partially block a shot which he should have held on to and Fucien converted with everyone else gazing in the 52nd minute. There seemed like no coming back from that point but yet there was something that would make the onlooker still keep his bets on a T&T comeback.
The first reaction to that came on 66 minutes when Nigel Daniel brought his Pro League tricks to the international stage, as he fired one home from 35 yards out to send the home fans into a frenzy.
That was the signal of a spirited attempt to a comeback from T&T but Haiti never stuttered.
Gabard did well to stop a well taken header by Bailey from Power’s long right side cross in the 76th minute and then Glasgow also had the Haitian denying him to the dismay of the thousands watching on. Gabard then pushed over a Theobald free kick and passed a further test when Roberts went for goal down the stretch. Nothing would go T&T’s way and not anything would deny the Haitians of their first ever regional title
