Antigua & Barbuda Roster by Position GOALKEEPERS (3): Molvin James, Kieta de Castro, Alston FordDEFENDERS (8): George Dublin, Luke Blakely, Troy Dublin, Ranja Christian, Justine Cochrane, Marvin McCoy, Marc Joseph, Joshua ParkerMIDFIELDERS (9): Kim Alexander, Quinton Griffith, Kajana Mack, Randolph Burton, Lawson Robinson, Kerry Skepple, Akeem Thomas, Kieran Murtagh, Mikele LeigterwoodFORWARDS (5): Peter Byers, Lloyd Jeremey, Stefan Smith, Tomarley Thomas, Dexter Blackstock
Cochrane and Murtagh I know from Champman and Footballman, both are English with (apparently) Barbudan ancestry and knock around the low professional and semi-pro levels in England. Cochrane's played on several full professional clubs before and way back in the CM 01/02 days was a good guy to get if you were starting out at the lowest levels. Joseph was once halfway decent but he has to be ancient by now.
Many of them are pros, and some not to be taken lightly. The recognizeable name there for me is Dexter Blackstock, who's now at Nottingham Forest. People may remember him for his time at QPR. A striker in his prime that can cause problems. Some of the other guys play in England. Josh Parker-Oldham Mikele Leigterwood-Reading Marvin McCoy-Wycombe .............and a couple more like that. A team that the US should beat, but also not one we're going to crush 10-0.
Murtagh is. Or at least his contract is held by a professional club and he's played for professional clubs before. Joseph and Cochrane have also played for professional clubs in the past.
While true, it's also not likely to be a very cohesive unit at this point. The general rule of thumb for teams like this is find out who are best players are first, and then figure out how to fit them all on the field next. I remember that Grenada was essentially a goalkeeper, Shalrie Joseph and 9 forwards.
I was under the impression that most of these guys played for Antigua Barracuda FC, which completes in the USL Pro division... ...which would make them a pretty darn cohesive unit, at least...
All of them are. Two (Leigterwood and Blackstock) play first XI roles with Reading and Nottingham Forest. Blackstock has scored 10 goals this season at Forest in all competitions. A few more bounce around League One and Two. The rest play in USL Pro for the same club team, Antigua Barracuda FC. It's a better team than that Barbados team we thrashed last cycle, which IIRC was Paul Ifill and a bunch of semi-pros. Further, the bulk of the Antiguan domestics all play and train together against our USL guys full-time, which means they have the cohesion going. Minnows for sure, but really good for minnows. They're the smallest nation left in the World Cup at this point, and it seems there's a reason for that. I assume they'll come in last in the group, but I think they'll be stiffer competition than most tiny Caribbean statelets would've been, which is why they're the only ones left.
They had a few other guys that were pros at the time...Mark McCammon (Doncaster), Jon Nurse (Dagenham & Redbridge, scored the winner for them in a promotion playoff a couple years later), Jonathan Forte (Scunthorpe), and Alvin Rouse (the goalie, played for various Irish clubs). Daryl Ferguson played in USL-2 at the time, I guess that would count as pro too. The Barracuda only have 6 points from 8 USL matches, played mostly at home. They give up 2 goals a game to USL teams. Other than Leigertwood and Blackstock their overseas-based players are nobodies. We should expect to hammer them. Probably not 8-0 because a lot of things have to go right to score that many, but at least 5.
And in the 2006 qualifying campaign how much did we beat Grenada by? I think the aggregate was 6-2.....................and the return leg in Grenada was a tough match. We weren't using scrubs either. Don't get me wrong, we should beat Grenada by multiple goals. We ain't winning 8 or 10-0, though. They have enough recruits from England, like Blackstock, to make things semi-interesting.
We dominated the home leg just like we dominated Barbados, the difference was our finishing and their goalie. Return leg was strange because of the soaked pitch, but IIRC the score was flattering to them. Looking at the recap on the USSF site we outshot them 22-6.
Antigua's other English pros are roughly on a par with those guys. (A little League One, a lot of League Two, and some Conference...) And then there's the Barracuda guys, who of course are USL Pro, and like you said, not particularly good USL Pro. But they play together a lot, and cohesion, generally a problem with these sides, is probably not a particular issue. I'm not trying to build these guys up as world beaters or even an average CONCACAF side. But this time around they're better than most of the island minnows I remember us facing in the past. Which is why they're the only island minnow left alive at this stage when all the rest are eliminated. At home, playing reasonably well, we should expect a smooth win. I have a feeling our team is still not "there" yet, but I mean we beat Cuba 6-1 at home in the same round. I can't see this team as being better than last cycle's Cuban side.
Not really IMO...McCoy is the only other one currently at a league club. Parker was just released by Oldham. Joseph, Murtagh, and Cochrane all played nonleague this year, and only Murtagh even played in the Conference, where he failed to crack the lineup at Cambridge before being loaned to Woking. I'd be more worried if their top reinforcements were defenders. Blackstock is a decent forward but how much attacking will they do? True, but if they use a lot of the English-based players it eliminates that advantage.
Yea their gonna bunker down and counter but all the more reason to be concerned with a decent forward that knows how to find the net. If he finishes his one to three chances and we can't unlock them we could be screwed. But yes in all reality that shouldn't be an issue and we should win.
I say go with this group against Antigua. ---------------------Altidore--------------------- ------Donovan-----Dempsey-----Gomez------ -------------Jones----------Bradley------------- Johnson--Bocanegra--Cameron--Cherundolo ---------------------Howard--------------------- With the exception of the guys that do not have match fitness, hopefully we don't see these guys against Canada.
ANY THING UNDER 12 GOALS BY THE US TEAM IS UNACCEPTABLE...... This carribian trash semi amatures beach dwellers should be runned over... ITS LIKE AN UTTER INSULT TO EVEN HAVE TO PLAY THESE WORTHLESS ISLANDS!!! US players looking forward to a relaxing vacation and a nice sun tan and oh yeah a game they can show up to hung over and still beat the living crap out of their rivals.....
Fixed it for you: ---------------Boyd------------------------- Donovan---Altidore----Dempsey----Gomez---Jones-----Bradley------Torres----Corona ------------NO MIDS NEEDED---------- ----------------Johnson(don't need him here but had to have an 11th guy)------------------------ -----------------Parkhurst(in goal)------------------ The 1-8-1.