Back Row (L - R): Myron Samuel (Cpt.), Kirshon Gonsalves, Baldwin Debique, McZiggy Richards, Gregson Hazell, Antonio Douglas.
Front Row (L - R): Daniel Patrick, Valdo Anderson, Akeeno Hazellwood, Nicol Stephens, Zenroy Lee.
The St. Vincent & the Grenadines National U20 football team failed to progress to the next round of the Caribbean Football Union's (CFU) World Cup qualifying campaign having suffered humiliating defeats in the first round of matches against a well prepared Trinidad & Tobago U20 outfit. The young Heats' home game turned out to be an absolute disaster as the young Soca Warriors were able to pull 8 successful shots from their barrels.
The return leg to Trinidad was expected to be as much of a challenge as the Heats' home match-up. However, with several changes made to the squad from match 1 with the inclusion of the cool-headed Valdo Anderson, and the pacey Akeeno Hazellwood, and American-based 16 year old goal keeper McZiggy Richards, the team was expected to show more purpose in its away game.
It took all but 5 minutes for the Young Warriors to take the lead, however, the next successful Warriors' effort was delayed for a total of 66 minutes - this was definitely evidence of the Young Heats' intent to reverse their fortunes.
Young custodian McZiggy Richards was quite impressive with his parries, dispossessions, distribution and clearances. However the Young Warriors were able to compile three more successful attempts on goal before the referee's whistle went off at the end of five minutes added time.
The consolation goal for the young Heats came in the 92nd minute. Captain Myron Samuel did just what he had been doing all night long - only this time reaping the rewards. Samuel in a quick dash down the right flank, impressively turned two of his markers before hitting a perfect cross to the far post which landed on the right foot of midfielder Keeson Rouse who made no mistakes in comfortably putting away the rare chance.
The Young Heats are now keenly awaiting their next shot at redemption.
Vincy heat is still looking good for the future, lets just hope a couple of the youth mans get professional contracts then we ll really be moving forward
ReplyDeleteWe simply need to start making the right investments into the overall development of our young footballers, and we would be blown away when we see what they are truly capable of - it is only a matter of time.
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