St Lucia in next round of World Cup Qualifier

Let’s face it, not many of us felt St Lucia had a hope in hell of beating Aruba in the second leg of the 2014 Qualification Match of 2014 World Cup in Brazil. But like they say, the game is played on the field and anything can happen.

Something did happen. After losing the first leg last Saturday in Aruba 4-2, St Lucia had a lot of ground to make up if they hoped to advance. In the second leg on Tuesday on a soggy field at Mindoo Phillip Park, a very young and inexperienced team prevailed in penalty shootout 5-4 after leading 4-2 after regulation time.

The game should never have gone that far. St Lucia dominated from the start

leading 2-0. It could easily have been more had they not squandered several good scoring opportunities.

Jamil Joseph though made the best of his chances scoring three goals for St Lucia. The other goal came courtesy of Kurt Frederick.

Cedric Gomez scored the opening goal for Aruba with R Barata getting the other.
After St Lucia led 2-0 on goals by Joseph in the 14th and 28th minute, Gomez got Aruba back in the game with a strike just before intermission.

Having given up a late first half goal, you would think the visitors would have all the momentum. That was not the case. St Lucia struck twice with Joseph scoring goal number three in the 71st and Frederick in the 73rd minute.

Leading 4-1 St Lucia had the margin of victory needed to advance to the next round. Not so fast. R Barata found the back of the net in the 76th minute to make it 4-2, equalling the goals for and against by both teams in the two matches.

That was the score line after regulation play. There was extra time but neither team was able to score. Then came the penalty shootout with St Lucia coming out on top 5-4.