ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Grenada and Guadeloupe became the first two sides to qualify for the Finals of the Digicel Caribbean Cup next month in Martinique.
Delroy Facey scored a brace to lead the Grenadians to a 2-0 victory over St. Kitts & Nevis yesterday at the National Stadium in the second match of a double-header, which also saw Guadeloupe keep their composure to prevail 3-2 over Puerto Rico.
The results meant that Grenada and Guadeloupe both have maximum six points from their two matches, but the hosts effectively lead on goal difference.
Final group positions will be decided tomorrow, when Puerto Rico face St. Kitts, and Grenada meet Guadeloupe.
In the feature match, Grenada started brightly in front of a strong home crowd of close to 5,000, and Facey left them delirious after 15 minutes, when he struck from close range, following a corner kick from Ricky Charles.
Facey almost doubled the lead two minutes later, when his thunderous shot from 25 yards flew past the right hand post of St. Kitts & Nevis goalkeeper Alexis Richards.
The Britain-born striker, whose father is Grenadian and mother is Jamaica, eventually doubled the lead on half-hour, when he ran onto a beautiful through ball from Kithson Bain, and lifted the ball over the advancing Richards.
The Spice Boyz, runners-up two years ago, continued to control the match, but their snipers failed to find the target in the remaining hour.
St. Kitts & Nevis had two clear chances in the second half, but fortune deserted them, when George Isaac chose to dribble around Grenada’s net-minder Andre Baptiste, following some fine approach play, and was shut down.
About 10 minute before the final whistle, Isaac almost made up for his earlier miss, when he climbed unchallenged to head Ian Lake’s cross against the post, and into the safety of Baptiste’s arms.
The Sugar Boyz were also dealt a severe blow, when Lake was given his marching orders for an elbow in the head to full back Curt Rennie.
In the first match, Guadeloupe looked the safe bet, when Stephane Auvray scored in the 58th minute to give them a 3-0 lead.
But Puerto Rico came storming back, and cut the deficit in the 65th minute, after John Morales dribbled past two defenders on the edge of the right corner of the penalty box, and knocked the ball into the centre for Chris Megaloudis to hit a right-footed volley out of the reach of goalkeeper Yohan Bus.
Nine minutes later, the Puerto Ricans, playing with a man advantage, scored again, when Peter Villegas curled a free kick over Maurius Fausta, after the Guadeloupean goalkeeper handled the ball outside the penalty box.
In the end, Puerto Rico’s comeback ran out of steam, but it was Guadeloupe that had the early fire, when they got off to an incredible start, scoring in the easiest of fashions after only 47 seconds.
Straight from the kick off, Auvray moved the ball right to Dimitri Fautrai. He squared the ball across the centre of the goal for Gregory Gendrey to sneak-in at the back post, and tap the ball into the empty net from three yards.
Guadeloupe doubled their lead nine minutes later, when Cedric Collet played a beautiful defence-splitting through ball to Ludovic Gotin, whose piercing run inside the box ended with a well-struck shot under goalkeeper Vila Torres.
The French side were leading 2-0 at half-time, and Auvray extended their advantage early in the second period, when he was one of three players that broke away with the ball, following a Puerto Rico corner, and the Guadeloupe skipper finished the counter-attack by stroking the ball pass Torres.
