By Dean “The Sportsman” Greenaway
BVI’s LaShawn Gibbs takes control of the ball then scored, in their U17 Men series with the USVI
In a tune up for next month’s CONCACAF U17 Men FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, the BVI won the opener, then drew the next two games with the U.S. Virgin Islands, in a three-game friendly series between Thursday and Sunday at the Greenland Field.
BVI substitute Myles Penn scored the lone goal seven minutes into stoppage time in Thursday’s 1-0 series opening win over the USVI. LaShawn Gibbs gave the BVI a 1-0 lead in Saturday’s game before the USVI’s Yannic Elizee evened the score at 1-1 in the 39th. Kharif Francois scored in the 31st minute of Sunday’s game to put the USVI ahead 1-0 at the end of the first half, then the BVI’s tied the game at 1-1 in the 42nd minute, on Gibbs’ second goal of the series.
BVI Coach Clinton “Tinnie” Percival said the games gave his staff an opportunity to see the team playing under different conditions and the three games has given them lots of insight, as they seek to complete the team before heading to Costa Rica for their CONCACAF matches.
“There are some ways to go and these games have given us the right direction, for instance how we organized ourselves in the press,” Percival told Island Sun Sports. “Can we do it, can we play from the back or can we allow them to play out from the backs, these are the things we’ve been working on for the last two weeks. We saw a lot of it coming out today, but at the end of the day, we recognize there’s much more we can do on it so, we’re going to be working on it for the next three weeks to put everything in place, but it’s a working process.”
Percival said they didn’t know what to expect from the USVI and one could have seen the players’ tension in the first game, and they got a bit more comfortable in their zone in the other games, but it was also good because it’s the same that they will face in Costa Rica, when they face the hosts in Group B, along with Trinidad and Tobago and St. Maarten.
“We were trying to work on the highline and low line press and if we could to it,” he said. “What we saw, in particular those things we worked on during the week, we saw a lot of it coming out and also when we attacked, counter attack quickly, that gave us a goal in the second game, where they ran down the line, control the ball and passed it quickly, I think that is something we can work on and build on it.”
The aim leading into the tournament is to improve players’ fitness, Percival said, as well as keeping structure, set plays and the simple things they try to do as a unit. Training sessions have been increased from two to four days and he said depending on the session workload, there’s a possibility of five days.
USVI Coach Dante Nicholas said both teams were able to sharpen up their tactical, a little bit of the fitness side of the game and actually draw against some real opposition for once, so it was really good for both islands getting some games under their belt, before they actually go to the tournament.
“We’ve done a lot of training on all three islands—St. Croix, St. Thomas and St. John—but not too much on the game so were really wanted to make sure we sharpened up and get the guys some game minutes under their feet as a group, because they all play for their own clubs, but as a group, lacking a bit of game, so getting them playing more and in these games themselves, we achieved what we actually wanted to do,” he said. “The boys know what they want to do with the ball and what they want to do defensively without the ball, which they worked on and will fine tune before the tournament.”
Nicholas said both teams were going neck and neck, which can be seen by the scorelines. He said BVI has a good coaching staff and he’s happy that they were able to match up with them. The games, he said, showed them things that they need to work on as they prepare for the upcoming tournament, where they will meet the USA, Cuba and St. Kitts-Nevis in Group F of the CONCACACF Qualifiers, in Costa Rica, Feb 7-16.
