Martinique, Guadeloupe, Saint Kitts and Nevis advance to Gold Cup group stage
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Lightning storms delayed all three Gold Cup matches at DRV PNK Stadium Tuesday night. Guadeloupe and Martinique – French territories in the Caribbean – eventually won their rain-soaked games to advance to the group stage of the biennial regional tournament.
Guadeloupe moved on with a 2-0 win over Guyana.
Martinique advanced a few hours later with a 2-0 victory over a small but gritty Puerto Rico team loaded with U.S. based college and second-division players. In the late game Saint Kitts and Nevis beat French Guiana 4-2 in a penalty shootout after the game ended 1-1 in regulation.
Saint Kitts and Nevis joins the United States, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in Group A and opens against Trinidad and Tobago at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at DRV PNK Stadium.
Guadeloupe, which won its two prelim matches by a combined score of 7-0, advanced into Group D alongside Canada, Guatemala, and Cuba. It is the second time in a row and fifth time “Les Gwada Boys” advanced to the Gold Cup group stage. They play Canada on June 27 in Toronto.
Guadeloupe players were so joyous with the result that their singing could be heard emanating from the locker room more than a half hour after the end of the game.
“We wanted to get into the Gold Cup, and now we are there, so I am very pleased,” said Guadeloupe coach Jocelyn Angloma. “We know it’s a strong group, Canada is one of the best teams in the region, so we have to get ready for that. We believe we can do something great.”
A Guyana own goal in the 18th minute gave Guadeloupe the lead and then Andreaw Gravillon scored on a high arcing free kick in the 57th minute to give Les Gwada Boys a goal of their own.
Six different players scored Guadeloupe’s seven goals over Antigua and Guyana.
“We want to play an attractive style with a lot of touches, the kind of style that fans enjoy,” Angloma said.
Guyana opened the game strong, but the momentum shifted to Guadeloupe after the lightning delay, which came at the 15-minute mark.
“We played up to 15 minutes a very balanced game and then the weather came and disrupted that period and I think that played a part because you build momentum and when there is a delay and restart it’s always a psychological factor,” said Guyana coach Wayne Dover. “We need to look at this whole aspect of playing games in these conditions. Guadeloupe has a good team, but we allowed ourselves to not progress to the next week and are very, very disappointed.”
Martinique outlasted a largely-U.S. based Puerto Rican team coached by 37-year-old England native Charlie Trout, who played college soccer at University of Illinois-Chicago, coached youth teams and worked as a postman and aerobics instructor before being named one of the youngest managers in international soccer.
The Puerto Rican starting lineup included forward Roberto Ydrach (University of Central Florida), defender Sidney Paris (Wake Forest), captain Zarek Valentin (Minnesota United), defender Nicolas Cardona (Chattanooga FC), midfielder Wilfredo Rivera (Orlando City), and forward Jaden Servania (North Carolina FC).
The teams remained scoreless at halftime. Puerto Rico had the best chance of the first half, but Gerald Diaz’s 43rd minute shot went wide left. He had another shot in the 67th minute, but it was saved by goalkeeper Yannis Clementia.
Martinique, which featured mostly Europe-based players, broke the ice in the 51st minute. Captain Brighton Labeau, who plays for FC Lausanne in Switzerland, went airborne and scored on a header off a Karl Fabien cross.
The game was briefly halted by lightning with two minutes left in extra time and when the teams returned, Kevin Fortune scored Martinique’s second goal on an empty net after Puerto Rican goalkeeper Joel Serrano had joined the attack in a frantic effort to tie the game before the final whistle.
Puerto Rico, which had a spirited fan group in the stands, had won its first game in a penalty shootout over Suriname.
“I’m really, really proud of the guys, they kept going all the way,” Trout said. “For such a young team to be in these games, this is where we’re going to grow. We need to play in these games, and we’ll be back. The future’s super bright for Puerto Rican soccer. This won’t be the end. We’ll come back stronger, get to the next level and prove to everybody that Puerto Rico can play football with the highest teams in CONCACAF.”
Martinque coach Marc Collat called the last five minutes of the game “very, very stressful” and said he had never seen a situation like the lightning delay in the final minutes. He also praised Puerto Rico. “They played with all of their heart,” he said. “They were very surprising in the second half because I thought they would go down physically, but they didn’t. The future is really great for this team.”
With the win Tuesday, Martinque moves on to Group C where they it joins the Central American trio of Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador. It is Martinique’s eighth group stage appearance and fourth straight overall. Their best finish at the Gold Cup was a run to the 2002 quarterfinals where they lost to Canada on penalties.
