On face value Guyana’s Golden Jaguars should be favoured to win today’s opening encounter of Group `F’ of the Digicel Caribbean Cup against Haiti at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium this afternoon.
Haiti’s football is still recovering from the earthquake in January of this year which devastated the country and left the country’s football and its football headquarters in ruins.
Dr. Yves Bart, president of the Federation Haitienne de Football was the only person to survive when the federation’s office came crashing down during the earthquake.
“From the headquarters there was nothing left. We lost a lot of colleagues including our best coach for the past years, all the equipment of our national teams, thousand of balls recently purchased, everything…everything,” Bart told reporters in Trinidad following the team’s arrival there on Saturday.
Since then, the Haiti Football Federation has attempted to rebuild the country’s football which in 1974 saw the Caribbean nation qualifying for the World Cup finals.
“We were able to get together, us members of the federation, and we all did our best to get back to work. The players lost immediate families; parents, wives, and children. A lot of young players are now orphans,” Bart added.
Haiti’s football has a rich tradition and the country was once considered the third strongest team in the CONCACAF region behind Mexico and Costa Rica.
The Haitians could be a tricky assignment as Trinidad and Tobago found out in the 2007 finals where Haiti defeated them 2-1 to be crowned Caribbean champions.They have deteriorated somewhat according to the latest FIFA rankings where they are listed at 128 out of a total of 217 countries.
Wayne Dover’s Golden Jaguars are having a bit of a fairy-tale run jumping some 22 places in the FIFA rankings to 98. They are the highest ranked team in the group ranked ahead of even hosts Trinidad and Tobago who are ranked 106. The jump in the rankings is in large measure to the team’s recent performances. They drew with Trinidad’s Soca Warriors 1-1 at the Guyana National Stadium in the inaugural President’s Cup international and then played unbeaten to win Group C of the Digicel Caribbean Cup Suriname leg.
There the Golden Jaguars golden run continued with a 3-2 win over the Netherland Antilles, a 1-0 win over St. Lucia and a 2-0 whipping of arch rivals Suriname, a team that has been a thorn in the side of Guyana’s football progress over the years.
The team boasts eight foreign based players including latest addition Chris Nurse while former national captain and veteran defender Charles `Lilly’ Pollard has been recalled.
The other overseas-based players are Shawn `Bubbly’ Beveney, Walter Moore, JP Rodrigues, Sean Cameron, Jake Newton and Chris Bourne.
Howard Lowe will skipper the squad which also includes strikers Dwight Peters, Devon Millington, Eusi Phillips and Anthony `Awo’ Abrams.
Haiti will rely on forwards Ricardo Charles, Eliphene Cadet, Leonel St. Preux and Fabien Vorbe.
The midfield department will be marshalled by
Fabio Testy Jean, Charles Jacquenson, Jean Jackinton and Jean Constant Monuma while Parmel Guerrier, Jean Gary Rubin and Donald Guerrier along with Junior Clairssainvil will take care of the defensive duties.
