By Morissa Lindsay
Early pressure and strong physical offensive plays from Barbados gave them the lead and overall 4-0 victory against Dominica in the Caribbean Football Union Boys Under-14 Challenge Series currently being played in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Contested at the Estadio Parque Del Este Stadium, Barbados showed their dominance as early as the third minute in their Tier Two Group Two match of the competition when an unmarked Giovanni Goodridge struck goal past Dominica goalkeeper Ajay Bellot.
As the match progressed three more goals were accounted for by Barbados compliments Osha’l Mayers in the 27th minute, Ari Manning in the 44th minute and Tremon Francis in the 61st as the Young Tridents began the Challenge Series on a positive note.
Barbados head coach Renaldo ‘PeeWee’ Gilkes said he was pleased with his team’s performance and believe that going forward adjustments can be made to further improve their style of play.
“I am pleased with the performance. We started behind the eight ball obviously because we had trials and followed the process with identifying players and then selecting players. Usually this is a process that would be handled in competition but over the last two years we have been without competition so I am extremely pleased with the performance.
“Obviously there is room for improvements in particular areas and that is why we are here as coaches and as a technical team to identify those areas that we can improve and also identify those areas that we are doing well; so, we can maximize and improve those and strengthen those but also to improve the areas we are not doing so well,” Gilkes explained.
He added: “I think we did well against Dominica who were way better today than they did in the previous game credit to them. And they really offered us a good challenge and a good preparatory step with reference to the competition.”
After the opening goal, Barbados placed themselves in a good position to extend their lead in the sixth minute off a penalty shot but goalkeeper Bellot did brilliantly to make the save. In the 15th minute of the match Barbados were fortunate to be awarded another penalty which was later disallowed.
With their strong consistent offensive plays and probing capabilities, it was just a matter of time before the Bajan lads accounted for goal number two which came in the 27th minute when Mayers, a product of the National Sports Council programme swiftly capitalized on the fact that the Dominica goalkeeper Bellot failed to glove the ball properly.
With a healthy 2-0 advantage at halftime, the Barbados team managed by Tricia Forde were definitely in a good position in Group Two which also comprises St Vincent and the Grenadines and French Guiana.
In the second half the young Tridents continued their dominance with a goal each from Manning in the 44th minute and Francis in the 61st as the overall Barbados team looked really organised. They passed the ball confidently which coach Gilkes shared was among
some of the positives he could take from the game.
“The confidence to pass the ball around, the willingness to compete, tactically to provide those spaces for our key players to play. I think we defended well and earning a clean sheet is a signal of that. Defensively we were quite sound. As I said earlier there are always areas to improve and I think the game was a healthy one.
“First of all to play again is an accomplishment in itself and obviously to play the way we did where we were comfortable on the ball. We made big spaces to allow our key players to receive the ball and we were able to manage a clean sheet that is always a good sign. So, I would say that we performed pretty well and it gives us a good ground to build on for the remainder of matches,” coach Gilkes said.
Barbados’ next match was
slated for late today against French Guiana. (morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb)
