The territory’s men’s national football team are among 25 teams vying for the biennial Caribbean Cup title.
The tournament kicked off against host Martinique on yesterday. They will also face Suriname on Friday and Montserrat on Sunday.
“We are going into this tournament very confident, coming off a friendly (1-0) international victory over Anguilla,” said coach Avondale “Avon” Williams, who is also expected to compete. He added that the squad has been preparing for the last three months and the team is young —with players ranging from 17 to 29.
“We also played games against local clubs and one against a Navy ship, which we won 4-1, showing how strong we are getting playing against our competitors. I’m very pleased with the team’s fitness level,” the coach said.
Team manager Rickie Davis, said the squad includes three collegians — Devon Peters, Chris Telemaque and Joel Fahie — and their coach is pleased with their technical progress and fitness levels.
“We expect to give a good account of ourselves,” Mr. Davis said. “We want to make the players as relaxed and comfortable as possible, so that they can do what they have to which is to play.”
Mr. Davis said he is excited and hopeful of the performance they will give. “It will give us the clearest indication to date of where we are and how we are progressing with the national team overall,” he said.
BVI Football Association President Andy Bickerton said this is a very important tournament because the association’s regional governing body, CONCACAF, holds a Gold Cup every two years and the winner goes into the Federation Cup with the World Cup winners and other winners from conferences around the world.
He said the team has been placed in a very strong group with hosts Martinique, Suriname and Montserrat. Mr. Bickerton added that based on the progress of the team, it is expected that the BVI will be competitive against the stronger teams of Suriname and Martinique.
“We are very excited about this. The coaching team has put a lot of time and preparation,” he said. “The public should be aware that we played a friendly game as part of our lead up to this tournament which we won one nil. It would appear that our preparation is on track.”
From an executive level, the BVIFA preside said a decision has been made to enter their various teams in as many competitions that they can, which they think are within their abilities.
“It’s a learning experience for us, but we think it’s important for the development of football here, we play as many international games as we can — both at ladies’ and men’s levels — and obviously, there are financial constraints,” Mr. Bickerton said. “But, the more that we play, the more interested sponsors will become and that was demonstrated by the success of the schools league. We are working with the Caribbean Football Union, trying to persuade them to host more regional competitions.”
Mr. Bickerton said that by entering the international competitions in the region as they found out with the under-17s over the summer, they were in a group which was beyond their capabilities.
“Obviously, that is an expensive foray for the BVIFA to send a team as far as Trinidad,” he pointed out. “It makes a lot more sense for us to compete regionally in say the Leeward Islands or Windward Islands levels where we can be a lot more competitive at all levels because obviously we are a much smaller territory, not like islands like St. Vincent and Grenada and so on.”
“We can judge our progress by our competitiveness against those kind of teams. Our men have drawn two strong teams in Martinique and Suriname, but based on the progress they’ve been making, we are optimistic that they will be competitive in those games,” he added.
The BVIFA president said that if youngsters in the youth programme — both boys and girls — can see the kind of games that are there for them to be involved with, it will give impetus to the overall programme.
The team consists of: Vesquever Frett, Gregroy James, Andre Ryan, Jevone Demming, Rushedo Robinson, Javier Smith, Jamal Sargeant, Jerry Jones, Troy Ceasar, Trevor Peters, Vanquever Frett, Jhon Samuel, Joel Fahie, Carlos Septus, Christopher Telemaque, Fladimir Septus, Devon Letteen, James Shearman, Avondale “Avon” Williams and Errol Wellington.
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