Haitian National Under 16 head coach Jean-Yves Labaze says his country's current crop of youth footballers are showing the results of consistent preparation at their national football academy which has seen several of their current Under 16 members training and playing together since they were ten years old.
Labaze was speaking as he and his players danced in celebration of their 1-0 victory over Trinidad and Tobago at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Friday, result which put them through to Sunday's final against Mexico but also placed them as Caribbean champions even if they falter in the last game. They square off from 4pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium while T&T and Jamaica face off from 2pm at the same venue for third place honours. Haiti, Jamaica and T&T are through to the final round of CONCACAF qualification which takes place in Honduras and Jamaica in April 2007 towards the FIFA Under 17 World Championship in Korea.
"This win over Trinidad brings us a high level of satisfaction. It gives us a lot of hope and it means the world to our players who have worked very hard for it," Labaze said via translator Nnamdi Hodge, who is also the team's liaison officer for the tournament.
"We have benefited from being together for a long time at the national academy. From the time we started to work together we had our ambitions on doing well at this level.We worked for a long while before political events caused us to break up for a month in 2004 but we came back together and we kept on working," he added.
He emphasized on the hardships experienced by the players, many of them coming from broken homes and with little other than football to look forward to. At least four of their Under 17 players of last season have gone on to play professionally in Argentina, Uruguay and United States, Labaze noted.
"Things are very hard in Haiti and coming to play this tournament in Trinidad was a great thing for the players. What we do is use the talent and the hunger for football to help overcome the hard way of life in Haiti. This is what the young players use as a way of making something better for themselves and the success here is a big achievement for them."
"We want to send a message to the leaders in Haiti with this victory. We want to lend them know that the young talent like these players cannot be neglected. Politics is important but taking care of things like sport like our football is equally important. Through football our flag can be waved around the world," Labaze said, noting that his people had followed what the "Soca Warriors" achieved in Germany.
"A lot of our people supported Brazil and Argentina but we felt proud to see Trinidad (and Tobago) at the World Cup. They represented us and they did it well. They gave us hope and showed us what can happen through football. In 1974 we went and this time it was Trinidad's turn and we were very happy for them."
And while the country's senior footballers are preparing for the Digicel Caribbean Cup, already the Under 16s have an eye on their first senior international cap.
"We are working hard with our under 16, under 18, and under 20 teams and then everyone wants to be with the senior team. We have some hope for the future," Labaze added.