Saint Lucia were anything but charitable hosts as the national under-15 female football team overwhelmed Dominica in a friendly on Saturday afternoon at the Philip Marcellin Grounds in Vieux Fort. Saint Lucia Football Association (SLFA) Inc Public Relations Officer Michael “Midget” Pierre referred to Saint Lucia’s dominance as a stroll in the park, drubbing the visitors 8–0 after enjoying a 6–0 cushion at half time. Following the opening whistle it was all Team Saint Lucia as they ran circles around their opponents with their more superior brand of football, cleverly stringing their passes clinically together. Hence it was no surprise when Annicka Louis shot them into the lead in the fifth minute of play.
ball possession.
Before the visitors could recover, Freegeanne Joseph made it 2–0 in the ninth minute. Asa Alexander got in on the action, increasing the lead in the 15th minute of play. Some normalcy returned to the game, albeit momentarily, until Jerdel Emery made it 4–0 in the 33rd minute. One minute later, Freegeanne scored her second goal while Harmonie Jones closed off the first half with the team’s sixth goal in the second minute of added-on time.
Following the resumption the home team, playing to a game plan, seemed more content in maintaining ball possession and frustrating their opponents. However, that didn’t prevent them from surging forward as Petra Mathurin made it 7–0 in the 39th minute.Dominica tried desperately to reduce the deficit but to no avail as Freegeanne would complete her hat trick in the 65th minute, and so the game ended 8–0 in favour of Team Saint Lucia.
Following the game Dominica’s Coach, Shane Seraphine, said: “It was a hard one today. The girls, they did their best but Saint Lucia was just the better team today . . . The Saint Lucian team is very good; you can see that they play more football in terms of their technique—passing and receiving, dribbling the ball—you can see that they play more football than us.
When asked if, despite the heavy loss, he could take away anything from this game, he replied: “Yeah, I must say we have a group of girls with a lot of heart. They play until the end. Before we came here I told them we are preparing for a tournament in the summer so this is a good step to see where we are and how much work there is to do. I still think there’s hope and, come summer, we will be as ready as we can be.”
Commenting on the match, Denis Didier, Head Coach of the Saint Lucia Team, said: “Today’s game was actually just trying to get the kids to play the ball out from the back and try and get to the wings and get it across. However, I believe they [St Lucia] got carried away seeing that their opponents were a little weak, so everybody wanted to score.” He also viewed the game as an assessment of where the team is currently, as they continue their preparation for the 2020 Regional International competition.
