www.bviolympics.com Football Dubbed a homeless and bottom of the barrel team, the BVI squad put up a brave fight on Sunday, but fell in the end to host Bahamas by the slimmest of margins. The 2-2 draw on the night saw the series finish 3-3 on aggregate, but the Bahamas won out by virtue of the away goals rule, after both teams played to a 1-1 draw on Wednesday. In the cruelest of twists, though, the game which was played in Nassau, was technically a road game for the hosts as BVI forfeited the right to play on their soil after its home venue at the A. O. Shirley Recreation Grounds, failed a FIFA inspection in December. Consequently, the two goals on Sunday for the Bahamas counted as away goals, sending them through to face Jamaica on the road-goal rule. Head coach Patrick Mitchell said having to play both games away had an effect on the team. I’d like to see facilities put in place because that’s one of the main things hurting us right now we don’t have facilities to use,” he noted. “These other teams have all the facilities you can think about. I think the powers that be should listen to us at this point in time. We didn’t have home support and that was one of the major things. The artificial turf we played on, it was difficult to understand it in three or four days time because the ball bounced differently, but, we tried out best.” Assistant coach Vincent “Nabu” Samuel agreed playing both games overseas is a major disadvantage. He said on any given day, if one of the matches was played at home, he’s sure they would have been victorious. “It’s a total disadvantage when you are playing both games in the country of the opponent,” he noted. “It may look like may one of the games is a “home” game, but in actual fact, both are home games for them.” Mitchell said he’d like to see a good youth development program being put in place, because the team needs to be rebuilt. “We have a lot of guys who have their heart out and I think they have reached to a point where they need to step down,” he said. Samuel said that is the way each association should go with its thinking towards the development process. He noted that the Bahamas is in a similar situation and football is not one of their primary sports. They have looked at younger players, sent them off to college so that they can return and represent. “We need to take a page out of that book as far as that is concerned,” he said. “There should be more incentives for our younger players if you want to keep them in the sport. The US market is offering a lot of opportunities for young Caribbean players and we have to look towards that route, getting to our schools so that we can stat to develop the team of BVIslanders who are able and willing to take it to the next level. We cannot continue to develop guys that have been there from the 90s.” The older players have their families and they are not playing professionally Samuel notes, and that’s why there must be the move towards younger players. He said things must be put in place—with a forward thinking macro plan—so that players can be properly developed and given adequate match practice so that they can be ready for the environment. © Copyright 2007 BVI Olympic Committee |
