Haiti secured their first three points of the 2010 Digicel Caribbean Cup with a business line 3-1 victory over St Vincent and the Grenadines in their Group F encounter at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium, Marabella on Thursday.
Samsung “Man of the Match” Sony Norde broke the deadlock on the stroke of half time when he collected a through pass inside the penalty box and smartly beat the goalkeeper with a low shot that curled into the far post.
Earlier, St Vincent had the first effort on goal of the two teams when Myron Samuel saw his close range effort stopped by the Haitian goalkeeper Steward Ceus. Haiti settled soon after and had a few chances at goal themselves.
As the second half progressed, St Vincent pushed forward in search of the equalizer despite Haiti threatening on a number of occasions. This left space at the back which Haiti attempted to exploit on the break and a free kick from outside the area enabled them do just that. Norde was taken down and substitute Leonel Saint Preux chipped a delicate free kick into the back of the net with Lynch’s feet in the St. Vincent goal appeared glued to the ground, Haiti were 2-0 ahead on 62 minutes.
St Vincent were now holding on for their Digicel Cup lives, and hit back three minutes later when Shandel Samuel nailed a rebound after two previous attempts were blocked. It was ‘game on’.
With time slipping away for the Vincentians and with them throwing caution to the wind, Haiti would make sure of the win on 83 minutes through Ricardo Charles. Saint Preux, who looked a very good player for Haiti, had an effort that was partially saved, which allowed Charles run in from the right to stab home the loose ball.
Afterwards, Haitian coach Edson Tavares was delighted with his team’s victory. “We are happy about the result. We worked hard coming in to the Digicel Cup and we got the reward tonight with this win. I think we deserved it. The tournament is far from over and we want to make sure we get to the finals in Martinique. That means we will be looking very closely at our next game against Trinidad and Tobago,” Tavares said.
On the opposing side, Vincentian coach Samuel Carrington still found reason to credit his team despite this being their second straight defeat in Group F. “We are disappointed but I saw some good things tonight that I was happy about. We worked on a couple things and I thought we were good in the first half but the match got away from us in the second half. Still I’m a little happy with what I saw and there are some good things for us to work with for the next few months or so,” Carrington said.
Haiti will be hoping for another strong performance against hosts Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday in order to progress to the Digicel Cup Finals in Martinique while St. Vincent and the Grenadines now do not have a chance to progress but will continue to work hard with a view to improving for future competitions.
