Nicholas double avenge St Lucia as T&T fall in CFU opener.
By Inshan Mohammed.
St Lucia began it's 2014 Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Men’s Under 17 Qualifiers in fine-style with a shocking 2-0 victory over Caribbean giants Trinidad and Tobago at the Sylvio Cator Stadium in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti yesterday.
A double from Noah Nicholas sealed it for the St Lucians over Shawn Cooper's men. Nicholas scored his goals in both halves with his first coming in the 25th and then completed his duce in minute 53 and, as a result took sweet revenge on the Junior Soca Warriors.
Just over a month ago in the preliminary round T&T defeated the host nation St Lucia (3-2) and then topped the group with further victories over Grenada (2-0) and Curacao (2-0) that send them through to second phase that is currently being played in Haiti.
Cuba, Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Martinique qualified for the finals by topping their groups during the preliminary round, while St Lucia and Guadeloupe qualified as being the two best second placed teams, with Haiti gaining an automatic qualification being the hosts of the event.
In the other group, host Haiti also defeated Barbados 2-0. Denilson Pierre and Denso Ulysse did the job for the Haitians.
Today Group B action has Cuba taking on Guadeloupe at 5pm then Jamaica faces Martinique at 7:30 PM local time. Tomorrow, Trinidad and Tobago will look to make up ground when they face Barbados and 2 hours later Haiti will rumble with St Lucia.
T&T hopes of topping the group as that feat would have assured it, along with the top team in Group B, an automatic spot at February’s Concacaf Under-17 Championship, which will be staged in Honduras now looks highly unlikely. The best second placed finisher however, from the two groups will also advance to the final round of Concacaf’s World Cup qualifiers directly. At the Concacaf Championship, the four best teams will qualify for the Fifa Under-17 World Cup 2015, in Chile.
T&T U-17 team meanwhile is captained by Presentation College of San Fernando’s Kareem Riley and includes five players from recently crowned SSFL Premier Division champion school, Naparima College. Among the players coming off a victorious campaign with Naparima are: Enrique Changiah, Levi Fernandez, Kierron Mason, Shobel Celestin and 14-year-old Isaiah Hudson.
Team
T&T: - 1.Enrique Changiah, 2.Sharkell Louison, 3.Keston Julien, 4.Tekay Hoyce, 5.Kendell Charles, 6.Kareem Riley (capt), 7.Isaiah Hudson, 8.Kierron Mason (18.Nate Brooks 61st), 9.Anthony Herbert, 10.Dareem Daniel (16.Jeankeon Alexander 64th), 14.Travell Edwards (11.Shobal Celestine 46th).
Subs not used: - 12.John Michael Herrera, 13.Sherwin Noel, 15.Matthaeus Granger, 17.Darnel Hospedales, 19.John Paul Rochford, 21.Levi Fernandez.
Coach: - Shawn Cooper.
Referee: - Dwight Royal.
Results - October 19
St Lucia 2 v T&T 0
Nicholas 25
Nicholas 53
Haiti 2 v Barbados 0
Pierre 5
Ulysse 34
Standings - Group A
P W D L F A Pts
St Lucia 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
Haiti 1 1 0 0 2 0 3
T&T 1 0 0 1 0 2 0
Barbados 1 0 0 1 0 2 0
Standings - Group B
P W D L F A Pts
Cuba 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Guadeloupe 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Martinique 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Jamaica 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Upcoming Fixtures - Sylvio Cator Stadium
October 20
Cuba vs Guadeloupe, 5pm
Jamaica vs Martinique, 7:30pm
October 21
T&T vs Barbados, 5pm
Haiti vs St Lucia, 7:30pm
October 22
Martinique vs Cuba, 5pm
Jamaica vs Guadeloupe, 7:30pm
October 23
Barbados vs St Lucia, 5pm
Haiti vs T&T, 7:30pm
October 24
Guadeloupe vs Martinique, 5pm
Jamaica vs Cuba, 7:30pm
October 26
Runner-up A vs Runner-up B, 5pm
Winner a vs Winner B, 7:30pm