Despite winning both friendlies against Trinidad and Tobago club team Horquetta Rangers by identical scores of 2-1, newly appointed Head Coach Jamall Shabazz feels Saint Lucian national players still have a lot of work to do in various aspects of the game.
On Sunday at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground the National Senior Team, with the addition of five Under 23 players, defeated Trinidad 2-1. In an interview following the game, Shabazz said, “I thought the guys did well after three weeks’ work. They showed good organisation, good discipline. Still, at times we can see how much work we have got to do to win by putting together bits and pieces of the game. I think mainly the desire to continue working hard, even when things go well for us – not taking your foot off the pedal when you have the opponent back up against the wall – are things we need to do. Saint Lucian people are very nice and we need to develop a little bit more aggression and determination into our play.”
To ensure we were on the same wavelength, I asked the coach if he was implying the players don’t have that killer instinct. Tongue in cheek he replied, “Well, the murder rate is very low here as compared to Trinidad and Jamaica so I can say very easily that the instinct to kill off the opponent . . . Because after we went up 2-1 with that brilliant goal, we had another chance with Antonio Myers. We could have buried them [Trinidad] and really put the game beyond them.”
When asked if it’s essential for the Under 23 side to play friendlies his response was: “Definitely. There is this feeling in the Caribbean that every country wants to go to the World Cup but it reminds me in Easter time of everybody wanting to be like Jesus but nobody wants to die on the cross.”
Shabazz also gave his viewpoint when it comes to corporate Saint Lucia supporting national teams: “We need the funding from corporate Saint Lucia. All these companies I see coming from Trinidad, Jamaica, they come in and own all these supermarkets, chain stores, department stores, but the money must be filtered back into the people. The business they have here, why are they here if they cannot work with us as a people and give back to us who patronize them by buying their goods and services? It is the funding from these businesses which will enable us to bring good teams. It costs a lot of money to play friendly internationals because football is very expensive.”
Shabazz continued: “We will be looking to play more games against teams that can beat and hurt us, because in doing that we will be able to improve. We certainly cannot do it without the help of corporate Saint Lucia, who must also recognize their responsibility to the people of Saint Lucia and the role they must play in sport development.”
Saint Lucia also recorded a 2-1 win over Trinidad last Friday at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground. Overseas-based professional Kurt Frederick opened the scoring for Saint Lucia by way of a penalty kick in the 15th minute which was the only score of the first half. Tyrone Charles tied it up in the 55th minute but it was short-lived. That’s because five minutes later Andrus Remy scored what proved to be the winning goal for Saint Lucia. Following, the starting 11 in last Friday’s friendly: Vino Barclett, Dial Augustin, Alvinus Myers, Melvin Doxilly, Zaine Pierre (Captain), Kurt Frederick, Otev Lawrence, Lester Joseph, Andrus Remy, Jevick MacFarlane and Antonio Joseph.
The Under 23 National Team was scheduled to play Trinidad on Tuesday at the Sab Sporting Facility. However, a spokesperson for the SLFA Inc stated that “the game had to be called off due to unforeseen circumstances”.
