Carribean Digicel Cup in September 2006! Does anybody know anything about this story?

British Virgin Islands withdraw from Group C.

New fixtures :

http://www.concacaf.com/viewCompetition.asp?id=210

 

Digicel squad named
Bermuda's Digicel Cup task just got a whole lot simpler - beat the world's worst team and we're through to round two.

The British Virgin Islands pulled out of the competition yesterday saying they were unable to get a team together after they were banned from using so many foreign players in their national squad.

That means Bermuda just needs to beat the U.S. Virgin Islands, officially ranked by FIFA as the joint worse of the 202 international football teams, to secure one of the two qualifying spots.

According to FIFA, USVI has yet to win a match at full international level and is on a 16-game losing streak.

Dominican Republic aren't much better they're ranked 188 in the world and haven't won a game in the last two-and-a-half years.

Far from being in a 'group of death' Bermuda, it seems, have been drawn in the 'group of life'.

Coach Kyle Lightbourne, who unveiled his 20-man squad yesterday, was still taking nothing for granted.

He said: "USVI are the host nation, so you never know. We would hope to beat them and we're looking to do well in that game but host nations are sometimes tricky." Lightbourne was not aware that BVI had pulled out when we spoke to him last night.

But he said he would rather have beaten them on the field than be handed a free three points.

"I would have preferred to play them because we really do owe them something. We managed to beat up on their under-20s not so long ago but I was looking to play against them and do the same to their senior team."

Lightbourne has secured the release of star forward Khano Smith for the tournament and the New England Revolution striker is expected to partner John Barry Nusum in attack.

"Khano has scored in almost every game he has played for me and John Barry has done well for the national side. They are the favourites to start at the moment."

But the coach had less success with his U.S. based college players with Taurean 'Snapper' Manders and Logan Alexander unable to play and doubts over the availability of Devrae Tankard.

Lightbourne hit out at the college coaches for their attitude and accused them of being selfish.

"I'm really disappointed in the colleges for not releasing them to play. I know if this was the USA that was asking their would be no problem."

He said he still hoped for Tankard to be released by Howard University but said he was particularly disappointed with their coach, who is a Bermudian.

"He's not been too helpful," he added.

Lightbourne confirmed that Kentoine Jennings would captain the 20-man squad that heads out to the U.S. Virgin Islands on Monday.

He said the squad would continue to prepare as though they would be facing three games in five days.

"I've got some experience with these tournaments and it doesn't always work as smoothly as planned.

"You can be down to play one team and you end up playing someone different. We'll continue to prepare as we have been."

Kerri Ann-Alleyne, secretary of the Caribbean Football Union, confirmed that BVI had been unable to field a team.

She said a new ruling had been introduced earlier this year, amid concerns that territories like BVI were fielding too many foreigners and failing to develop their own players.

Now teams like BVI can field a maximum of five non-nationals. They had submitted a squad but it had been rejected and they had been unable to find enough BVI born players to meet the guidelines.

Daniel Greenaway, a freelance sports journalist in BVI, said the sport was struggling with more locals opting to play softball and basketball instead of soccer.

He said there were some decent under-20 players that could have made up the squad, but they were not considered ready for this level of competition.

http://www.bermudasun.bm/main.asp?SectionID=8&SubSectionID=203&ArticleID=30974

 

Yesterdays results first round :

Group B

Antigua & Barbuda - St Kitts/Nevis 1-0 !
Barbados - Anguilla 7-1

Group F

Guadeloupe - Martinique 4-0
Dominica - St Martin 0-0

Second round :

Group G : Surinam , Guyana , Antigua & Barbuda and Barbados

Group I : Bahamas, Canada, Guadeloupe and Martinique

 

Matches yesterday :

Haiti - St. Vincent & the Grenadines 4-0
Jamaica - St Lucia 4-0

US Virgin Islands - Bermuda 0-6

http://www.digicelfootball.com/en/news.php?id=68

 

Those uniforms pictured above are not the Haiti jersies. They are similar, but there is no logo on it (thankfully).

Here is a pic of the jersies they wore vs St. Vincent: http://www.digicelfootball.com/medias/HaitivsStVincent.jpg

 

Re: Carribean Digicel Cup in September 2006! Does anybody know anything about this st

It's the same new jerseys that Digicel presented to them. So I guess the jerseys that featured Digicel logo were only given to the members of the staff during the presentation. They are the same jerseys though, just without the logo . Does anyone know if the new jerseys will be sold?

 

unfortunately not all good news has come from the CFU Digicel Cup....

Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) condemns robbery of Haitian supporter at CONCACAF Digicel Cup.

Observer Reporter

Friday, September 29, 2006


The Jamaica Football Federation (JFF) has condemned the robbery of a Haitian football supporter at Barbican football field in St Andrew yesterday.


According to the JFF, Haitian supporter Jean Robert Fleurima was reportedly held up at gunpoint by a gunman and robbed of an undetermined sum of money - metres from the Haitian team's training venue - during a session yesterday morning.


Allegations are that the man was robbed of an estimated US$1,000 to US$2,000.


JFF press officer Garth Willaims told the Observer that the Federation denounces the incident, even though the person robbed was neither a player nor official.


"We really regret this sort of incident and condemn it, especially because it has offended one of our visiting neighbours," he said.


"We're trying deal with it right now as the police are on top of things, so hopefully they get to the bottom of the matter and let the visiting Haitians feel a little more secure while they're here.," he added.


Williams said the victim is one of 26 Haitians currently in the Island to support their team in the Digicel Caribbean Cup.

"The Haitian Football Federation requested immigration clearance for 51 persons... however, the JFF is responsible only for 25 (players and official), with the Haitian Federation taking care of the remaining 26 that came in their company," Williams disclosed.


"What happened though was that one of the members of that 26 that we are not responsible for was robbed of an undetermined sum of money and a bag which contained some valuables, while the Haitains were training at the Barbican field," Williams explained.


Haiti, St Lucia, St Vicent and the Grenadines, along with hosts Jamaica, are competing in Group D of the competition which is being staged at the National Stadium. The top two teams will advance to the second round.

 

Haiti's up 4:0 at halftime over St. Lucia

 

who scored?

 

Jamil Jean-Jacques (2') (12')
Jean-Baptiste Fritzson (not sure about time)
Mones Chery (42')

i heard Fabrice Noel is tearing up the St. Lucia backline

Haiti won 7:1, the Haitians qualify for group H

 

Does anyone have the score from the St. V&G-St. Lucia game?

 

Match report :

http://www.digicelfootball.com/en/news.php?id=78

 

Re: Carribean Digicel Cup in September 2006! Does anybody know anything about this st

This isn't confirmed, but I'm being told
SVG is up 5-nil.....

 

Assume SVG wins and Jamaica wins.

What's first tiebreaker? Normal GD or GD amongst the tied teams.

 

As of the 35th minute
Jamaica (2-0) Haiti

 

Final score- Jamaica 2:0(2:0) Haiti

Haiti wins Group D and according to their federation might be potential hosts for Group H

The Vincy Heat will be the other qualifier for Group H

The defending champions, Jamaica were eliminated due to goal differencial and will not reclaim the Caribbean title or qualify for CONCACAF Gold Cup 2007, there will be a new Caribbean Nations Cup champion in Trinidad & Tobago next year.

 

Trinidad have to be favorites even more now, especially on home soil.

 

Alot of reggae boyz fans i've chatted with say they predict the cubanos to win the cup. And don't forget about Guyana and the vincy heat.

 

No love from you for your team?

Round 2 looks like this with my predicted final round participants in bold.

Group E
*Guyana
*Surinam
*Barbados
*Antigua & Barbuda

Group F
*Bermuda
*Dominican Republic
*Haiti
*St. Vincent & Grenadines

Group G
*Cuba
*Bahamas
*Guadeloupe
*Martinique

 

Any comments and predictions for next round guys?
Did you like how Warner and his pals changed the whole thing in the last minute?

 

The only good thing about group I is that it gives both Cuba and Haiti strong tested matchups. Rumor has it that on the 17th and 19th of this month they'll be playing 2 friendlies against each other as warmups for their Digicel Caribbean Cup second round group. If the matches are confirmed, then Haiti will be playing without their international players.

 

The Cuban national team traveled to Haiti this morning to play two friendlies
with the haitian counterpart next week,dates and times for games to be announced and they confirmed the game with Panama on November 1st but are asking the Panamanian federation to move the game for the last days of October.