Four starters from England, six local based, and one who is unattached (Byers who has had trials in Vietnam and recently played in the US). Another England-based player was on the bench (Cochrane). I really hope the US play their home leg against Jamaica or Antigua in Chicago (or Bridgeview). Jamaica would have a fighting chance and if they beat the bastards here I'd be ecstatic. Antigua it would just be nice to see even if their chances of even a draw would be slim (here, you never know what could happen in their home leg). The problem with having two Caribbean teams in the US' group is that I'm sure we'll get even more of the ignorant "fans" of the team invading this forum making stupid posts.
http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=67255 ST JOHN’S, Antigua – Head coach of the Haiti national football team, Brazilian Edson Tavares, has been accused of killing the dream of an entire nation. The accusation came from Henry Robert Dominique, who was the spokesperson for the visiting team during their 1-0 loss to Antigua & Barbuda in Group F World Cup Qualifiers at Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Grounds on Friday. “The coach really killed the dream of a nation. We had the best player on the field, number nine (Kervens Belfort Fils), but the coach wanted to play for a tie game. We could have won the game, but this is the coach and that is his decision and I wish him luck because going back to Haiti is not going to be easy for the coach,” Dominique said during the post game interview. “He really killed the dreams of 14 million people and maybe because he is a foreigner, he is from Brazil and he doesn’t understand what it means to wear the Haitian flag that we fought for the independence way back in 1804 … and this is the dream of the Haitians, to go to the World Cup,” he added. The lone goal of the contest came from substitute Kerry “Arab” Skepple in minute 83, but Haiti could be credited with having majority of the possession throughout the 90 minutes. Haiti also had a number of scoring opportunities with their first coming off the upright in the first half and their final of the game parried away by Antigua & Barbuda’s Molvin James in injury time. “I don’t want to blame the coach only because the players were on the field. But everybody asked him to put number nine on the field and he never wanted to put number nine … He wanted to make his own move to be a hero. Now he is a zero. For the Haitian nation, the coach Tavares is a zero. We wish him luck, maybe he is going to coach in a new country,” Dominique said. The spokesperson said, however, that the loss could be a good thing for Haiti as they can now concentrate on putting a proper structure in place. “I think maybe it is a good thing for Haiti in a way because now we need to put in the structure because we have the talent. Any soccer player in the world could have seen that Haiti was the better team tonight. But that wasn’t enough. We need management. We need soccer fields. We need soccer balls. We need to send the kids to school and we want to say thank you to the president of Haiti, Michel Martelly, who is going to help the country with a new generation looking for change,” he said. “We need to put soccer schools on the countryside to remove the kids from the streets and maybe the loss is a tough loss because everybody in Haiti, we love Brazil, we are the number one fans of Brazil in Haiti, and we were looking forward to going to the World Cup in Brazil,” Dominique added. Haiti will host Antigua & Barbuda on Tuesday in the return leg, but Dominique is not convinced that the Haitian population will turnout in support of the team. Antigua & Barbuda advanced to the semi-final round which is slated to commence in June of next year. Antigua & Barbuda will play the USA, Jamaica and Guatemala in Group A.
No... If anything NOW would be the best time to exploit this rule. I'm pretty sure if they asked big named players whether or not they want to represent Antigua in a group with Haiti as a favorite.. they would say No, but now that they won the group they have an angle and motivation to pull these players. They have a chance.
http://www.antiguaobserver.com/?p=67253 ST JOHN’S, Antigua – The date November 11, 2011 will be recorded permanently in the history books of Antigua & Barbuda as the day the tiny twin-island state, for the first time, qualified for the semi-finals round of a FIFA World Cup. Embedded next to the etchings in the history books, will be the name of striker Kerry “Arab” Skepple who would have propelled Antigua & Barbuda past the favoured Haiti national team with an 83rd minute conversion. “Coming onto the field of play, I was focussed on the job that the coach had (given) to me which was to defend first and then get up into the attack,” a calm Skepple said following the fixture. “And once I got up into the attack and realised I had an opened opportunity, I had confidence in striking the ball and it ended up where I really intended for it to end up.” Antigua & Barbuda, for the most part of the contest, played in their own half as they tried to soak up the pressure from the stylish and passing Haiti squad. Attempts to get leading goal-scorer Peter “Big Pete” Byers into the game by playing the ball long to the striker were, for the most part, ineffective which left the professional player visibly frustrated and out of sync. Skepple’s introduction into the game for midfielder Lawson “Boy Blue” Robinson with just 15 minutes of play remaining, however, garnered instant results as the player collected a ball just outside the penalty with his back to the opponent’s goal, turned and fired a swerving shot at Haiti’s Johny Placide. The goalkeeper, who had been having a fairly quiet night in goal, somehow lost hold of the ball and could do nothing as it slipped from his grasps and flew into the back of the net. Skepple, who was the leading goal-scorer in the country’s Premier Division in 2010/11, but has been playing off the bench for the senior team since the start of Group F Qualifiers, answered public calls for him to be given more playing time by simply saying he is just happy to be a part of history. “We are all a team. Everyone has a part to play and tonight I came in and I played my part. And it is not Kerry win; it is the team and it is Antigua who win,” he said. “So the thing about more playing time or whatever, I just enjoy myself playing and whatever time I get I am going to use it and enjoy myself playing.” Antigua & Barbuda will now face opposition from the USA, Jamaica and Guatemala in Group A of the semi-finals round slated to commence in June of 2012. The senior national team is, however, currently in Haiti where they are expected to play the return leg tomorrow.
went to the Haitian forums..and that is the one positive everybody took out of this game. Now with this loss, will come questioning of the Federation and what will it do to further development of local Haitian futbol.
Today's final scores are: Barbados 1-2 Bermuda (bartecky thought he posted the final score but Barbados scored in stoppage time) Puerto Rico 3-0 St. Lucia Cayman Islands 1-1 Dominica Republic (so Cayman Islands won't finish without a point)
Why don't I spare us both me putting out the multitude of reasons I can't stand either the team or "fans," many probably offensive, you're inevitable disagreement with them, the following argument and mucking up of the thread, and ultimately getting nowhere (needless to say I've been down this road before) and just leave it at I can't stand really anything about them (this is assuming you are one of them). If you're really desperate I can try to link you to where I've spelled out my argument in various bits though those could take a while to find.
can't find a link.. I think noone is airing it cuz they find it as a dud match. Just checked THN and didn't see anything.
Maybe it still works? http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/matchcast/index.html?intcmp=promo_fwcq_mathcast_en 2:0 for Curacao (1st half) and red card for Curacao goalkeeper..