Another English league player to represent Grenada

Where does this article come from?

 

I found it here (not sure if that's where The Creeper got it):
http://www.spiceisle.com/grenadasports/Football - National Team WC Preparations.htm

 

Does Grenada have a domestic league?

We're not talking exactly talking about Tottenham, Manchester City, and Hannover 96.

 

2/28/2004
GRN 5:0 GUY
GRN goals: N Bishop (36), K Philip (39), 13 A Augustine (72), 11 A Modeste (81), 7 D Rennie (91+)
GRN cards: A Augustine (79, Y)

1 K Baptiste (GK), 4 J James, 5 F Baptiste, 8 N Bishop (7 D Rennie, 75), 9 S Joseph, 11 A Modeste, 15 K Phillip (13 A Augustine, 64), 14 B Benjamin, 16 B Bubb, 12 P Modeste (19 R Charles, 60), 19 R Morris.
Unused: 31 D Noel (GK), 18 K Thomas, 17 A Bubb, 2 E George.

4/14/2004
GUY 1:3 GRN
GRN goals: R Charles (15), 30 J Roberts (69), 16 B Bubb (87)
GRN cards: J James (83, Y)

1. K Baptiste (GK), 4. J James, 5 F Baptiste, 10 R Charles (8 N Bishop, 80), 11 A Modeste (capt), 12 P Modeste, 14 B Benjamin, 27 D Lee (15 K Phillip, 51), 20 A Bedeau (16 B Bubb, 81), 30 J Roberts.
Unused: 31 D Noel (GK), 21 D Cox, 19 R Morris, 2 E George.

 

Looks like 17 of the players on their Feb. 28th match against Guyana were based in a domestic league, with 1 MLS-based, 8 based in England, 1 in Jamaica, 2 elsewhere in the US (college?), and 1 in Hungary.
http://www.spiceisle.com/grenadasports/Football - National Team WC Profiles.htm

While those English teams aren't Tottenham and Man City, it's not like we don't call up guys like Eddie Lewis, Jovan Kirovski, and Gregg Berhalter off of English First Division rosters, which is where Wigan, Sheffield United, and West Brom play (West Brom is about to be promoted to the Premiership, Wigan is in a playoff spot, and Sheffield United is just out of one, after losing in the playoff final for Premiership promotion last year).

Jason Roberts has 12 goals this season, including four in the Premiership for Portsmouth and 8 for First Division 5th-placed Wigan, who bought him for 1.4 million pounds, so that sounds like a pretty dangerous guy.
http://www.soccerbase.com/footballlive/?MIval=players_details&playerid=11254

Facey has five goals in the First Division this year, including a hat-trick against Walsall in October while on loan to Burley.
http://www.soccerbase.com/footballlive/?MIval=players_details&playerid=10608

Sestanovich's contract is owned by First Division Sheffield United, but he's spent a good portion of the year on loan to a Conference team. That being said, he's made his first two appearances for Sheffield United in April.
http://www.soccerbase.com/footballlive/?MIval=players_details&playerid=35574

 

if we cant beat this team using scrubs from Columbus and Dallas then we dont deserve to go the Germany.

Delroy Facey

 

Yeah, we should win this hands down. Still, there aren't a lot of strikers on Columbus or Dallas that Wigan would pay 1.4 million pounds for (with the possibility of going up to 2 million, based on appearances) or who would have played in 30+ Premiership matches last season, both of which are the case with Roberts.
http://www.wiganlatics.premiumtv.co.uk/page/Profiles/0,,10429~8455,00.html

 

Roberts has a ton of athletic ability. Still, I think it's instructive that Facey and Roberts weren't there last time around. It's not inconceivable that this team could put some serious interest into a home-and-home, but we're talking about their best players and guys who don't even play for them, and comparing them to guys who are on our bench when we put our best foot forward.

It does show one thing though - no one (except perhaps Mexico, who plays a weaker Dominica and gets to play at home and home-away-from-home) in Concacaf can afford to take this next home-and-home round seriously. Even if you have a 95% chance of winning with your B team against their A team, you have to bring as close to your A team as possible to minimize the risk.

Which is why Freddy has to be in the lineup vs. Grenada.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again: this will be a much tougher series than we're all thinking.

Prepare to bite those nails!!

(btw, I hope I'm completely wrong.)

 

In a sense, I think you're right. I think most posters here expect a pair of 10-0 drubbings. I suspect there'll be one drubbing and one non-drubbing.

I'm just glad this isn't a one-off winner take all game. Anything can, and eventually does, happen in one-offs. The two legs really disadvantages Grenada.

I suspect we'll thrash them pretty good in one of the two games. All bets are off for the other game, but I doubt we'll actually lose either game.

 

This is a naive question but does the loser of this home-and-home get completely eliminated from World Cup qualifying?

 

Yes


edit for damn minimum post length thingy

 

What happens if score is exactly the same and tied in both games?

 

This worries me a little but not a lot. If you put down Canada's lineup, it too would have a lineup with a lot of EPL, Bundesliga and English first div. players. But I would expect us to beat them, too. OF course, I think Canada is the sleeper team for this round of qualifying, so .... Anyway, we should win, but we might not if we go into it with the "Caribbean minnow" mentality. .

 

If the series winds up tied (including on away goals) it'll go to PKs. Don't remember if their is any overtime first or not.

In the last round of CONCACAF qualifying for Japan/Korea, Barbados eliminated Cuba on PKs and earlier, Surinam eliminated St. Lucia by the same route.

 

From Fifa World Cup regulations 2006

As to the topic, its great for Grenada. They probably can't beat the US this time around, but if they get many more young Premier players, whoever they face 4 years from now could have trouble. I imagine they could show results if they played Panama/St Vincent&Grenadines/Dominican Republic/St.Kitts&Nevis/etc., basically about half the teams left in qualifying.

 

So Grenada is not shaping up to be a cakewalk.

 

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At the end of the day, it probably will be. But I think it's dangerous to assume that we'll crush them 15-1 on aggregate. We're not exactly playing Watauga County Junior High School. It's probably like when the big boys of Europe play Andorra. For every 5-0 or 6-0 game there's a 3-2 or 2-0 game.

I mean we crushed Barbados 7-0 in Foxboro, and while we did end up winning 4-0 in the away leg, it was still 0-0 well into the second half of a game that we had to win. I don't really have any fears that we'll lose. In that sense, it is about as much of a "cakewalk" as there is in WCQing.

 

I hope the matches are competitive, but that we win by 3-4 goals on aggregate. We cannot, however, get a 4-0 result, for example, in the first leg, and then send the U-20 team and Richie Williams down to shuck-and-jive through the away leg. That is the stuff that David and Goliath was made of.

 

Columbus and chicago.... chicago is the new dallas.

 

This is the first I've heard of this (Grenada's English 'legacies'). Andy, did Barbados have a roster full of Europe-based professionals?

I guess I've been around long enough to worry every time the US takes the field. I hope Bruce feels the same way.

 

Dammit. We can't even beat Chicago for those "honors"

 

2 games can't make up for how bad dallas has done over the last few years.

if you're expecting the Fire to pull a columbus crew and play like crap despite having high expectations for the season, you're in for a huge surprise.