The BVI National Football Team Photo>John Lewis

TORTOLA—The British Virgin Islands Football team will face Barbados for the first time and renew kinship with hosts St. Kitts, during Group D play in the Digicel Caribbean Championships on Wednesday and Friday in Warner Park, in Basseterre.

“Our goal is to win the zone and as there’s only one team coming out of the zone, we wan to be the one,” said former player and coach Avondale “Avon” Williams.

The BVI faces Barbados at 2 p.m. on Wednesday and Williams said they know nothing of the team except that they are a good team and are coming off a 1-0 loss to the United States—which he said, is a strong team these days. He said if the Bajans can come out of just a 1-0 loss, then they are a threat, but they will have to work around that and see if they can muster a victory.

Team BVI meets St. Kitts—a team Williams described as one of the dominant teams in the region—on Friday afternoon. “What I’m hearing is that they are having some problems just like us, so hopefully, we can overhaul them and use it against them to come out with a victory.”

The team enters the competition without practice matches after a warm up match with the U.S. Virgin Islands fell through when the Virgin Gorda Football Association league opened on Sept 7. Williams said the physical and spiritual preparation is there but because of a lack of match practice, he said they could not see the mental weaknesses of the players. He said he has put something in place and hopefully that can bring good results.

When asked what’s the biggest challenge the face team, Williams said it was the financial aspect. “To prepare a national team to play at this level of tournament, we need financial, proper support and proper facilities,” he said. “We have been using Greenland field, which is uneven, bumpy, small and not properly marked. Most definitely, its very difficult to prepare to come up to that level. Hopefully, when we return after winning the zone to go to the second round, there’s something in place for these guys to be more confident and better prepared to face these challenges.”

© Copyright 2008-9 BVI Olympic Committee

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