St Vincent and the Grenadines failed to overcome Barbados and lost topping Group B by the slightest of margins after a three way split for top spot brought the all important FIFA tie breaker rule into play for the first time in the Digicel Cup 2010. In what was a tight game that controversially ended with both sides being reduced to nine men each, St. Vincent lived to fight again as they qualify to the next round of the Caribbean’s biggest football tournament.
Both teams started this crunch encounter in front of a capacity crowd here in Victoria Park knowing a loss when end their participation in this year’s Digicel Cup. With a 5,420 strong home crowd cheering on St Vincent & the Grenadines the home side started confidently.
With neither side giving much away the game was competitive but chances were few. The Vincentians seemed to lack any imagination going forward with the tall Barry Skeete at the heart of Barbados’ defence eating everything up they threw forward. How St. Vincent missed the formidable pairing of cousins and strike partners Myron and Sheldon Samuel who were suspended and injured respectively. No wonder then that the best chance of the opening 30 minutes fell to Barbados playmaker Norman Forde whose drilled shot from 18 yards flew inches past Dwayne Sandy’s post.
The sizable home crowd grew restless as their team failed to gain any fluidity to their play as they struggled to capture the midfield with very little off the ball movement giving them any options in the last third. A well rehearsed Barbados free kick brought the best out of Sandy on 40 minutes as he got down well to smother a well struck free kick from Forde just 20 yards out.
Just before half time St. Vincent had their best chance as Snagg forced Rouse down to cover his inside left post as the industrious little winger forced a rare corner for the home side.
The second half brought much of the same despite coach Carringhton bringing in half time subs Damol Francis and Seinard Bowens to try and liven up a listless attack line for St Vincent.
It was becoming more obvious that a bit of individual brilliance would be needed to open the scoring and Cornelius Stewart was denied doing just that on 54 minutes when his beautifully struck free kick went over the wall and down again only for Rouse to get a strong hand to it to push it away from the inside post.
On 64 minutes the crowd were momentarily on their feet as they thought the deadlock had finally been broken but somehow Rousse had managed to get a hand to the ball while backpedalling, touching it over the bar after an audacious attempted lob by sub Francis from the right hand edge of the box.
The game moved seemed to continue lack a special moment and it was unfortunate that both sides ended the game with nine men each. George was the first to go on 71 minutes and was followed by Norman Forde and Keith James who were involved in an off the ball incident. The last to follow was John Parris for Barbados who Referee Javier Jauregui felt had been over impetuous with the Vincentian keeper.
After the final whistle Alvin Rousse was also shown the red for excessive complaining to ref Jauregui.
Nil all it ended which meant that Barbados would be going home and out of this year’s tournament. Despite the fact that none of the big three of St Vincent, Barbados, or St Kitts could beat each other, it was down to the FIFA regulations on tie breakers which came into effect in the CONCACAF region in 2007 on the question of qualification.
The three teams were level on total points, level on points on the games against each other, level on goal difference in games played against each other, but finally differentiated on the fourth circumstance where St Kitts scored more than the other two in the games between each tied team. St Vincent then came second in the Group by the fifth level of tie breaker when they scored more goals in the competition in its entirety.
Knowing Cayman finished second in Group A on 4 points, it is guaranteed that St Vincent qualify as one of the top two sides from Groups A, B or C.
