Sunday, October 26 – Havana, Cuba: Three of the four teams going into the Digicel Caribbean Championships’ Group G now have everything to play for on the final day of the group this Monday, October 27. Cuba with 4 points and a goal difference of +6, Barbados with 4 points and a goal difference of +1 and Suriname with 3 points and a neutral goal difference, all have a fight on their hands come Monday to win a place in the DCC finals in Jamaica in December.
Suriname Head Coach Kenneth Jaliens shared his thoughts about their position in the Group, “Coming into Stage Two of the DCC we were without three of our best players (Limon – Attacker, Lypson – Defense and Sordem – Midfield) so we are weaker. But none the less we are trying our best to get to the Finals in Jamaica. Our first game was important but unfortunately we lost.
“Cuba will be tough and we will play a very open game. It will be the last game so we want to give the spectators a great game. We will be making changes to our starting XI simply because Cuba will be a different opponent. We need to win.”
Barbadian player Angus Doyle, a substitute in their second match who came in at the 58th minute to score what is undoubtedly the best goal of the tournament (an amazing goal from 40 yards) is confident about their match against Netherland Antilles on Monday, saying, “We want a lot of goals in the next game. We will attack more and we are confident that we will win.”
When asked about his goal against Cuba, Doyle expressed: “I was very impressed with my goal. I dreamt about scoring the night before and I came out determined to score. We were very happy with the draw on Saturday, we tried our best, we defended very well and were successful.”
Cuba Technical Director, Raul Gonzalez Triana, still shocked by the score of Saturday’s match, said “We didn’t expect the results on Saturday against Barbados. That goal scored by Barbadian Angus Doyle was the only thing I feel Barbados did in the game.
“On Monday we will have to beat Suriname, we cannot afford to lose. We are very proud players and we must be prepared for our next game.”
Not to be left out, Netherland Antilles will be playing for pride come Monday as with 0 points and -7 goal difference they have no chance of getting to the Digicel Caribbean Championships’ Finals set for Jamaica in December.
The final two matches of Digicel Caribbean Championship’s Group G is set for Monday October 27 with Barbados vs. Netherland Antilles at 2PM and Cuba vs. Suriname at 4PM at the Pedro Marrero Stadium in Havana, Cuba.
