The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

IN the team’s final match in group stage play, the Bahamas failed to improve on its fourth place in the Group A standings.

On Tuesday night, the Bahamas played the US Virgin Islands to a 2-2 draw in the final game on the schedule at the CONCACAF Under-15 Championships in George Town, Cayman Islands.

The Bahamas held the lead for all of two minutes in the final period before the USVI scored late to force the draw.

Grant Farell gave the USVI the lead at the 28 minute mark before Terry Mosko tied the game at the 37’ mark.

Omri Williams took the lead for the Bahamas at 70’ before Dante Nicholas scored the equaliser for the USVI at the 72’ mark.

Other games on the schedule included Belize with a 6-1 win over Grenada, Guatemala with a 1-0 win over Jamaica, Cayman with a 4-2 win over Aruba and Bermuda with a 5-0 win over St Maarten.

After five games, the Bahamas finished the group stage in fourth place with a 1-1-3 record. They maintained a single goal differential after 11 goals scored and 10 goals against for a total of four points.

Bermuda earned a spot in the semifinals and won group A with a perfect 5-0 record, followed by the Cayman Islands at 4-1, Aruba at 3-2, followed by the Bahamas.

USVI also finished at 1-1-3 and St Maarten closed out the group winless at 0-5.

After consecutive losses, the Bahamas finally got its first victory with an 8-0 score over Saint Martin last Friday. They also lost 4-0 to Aruba, 1-0 to Bermuda and 3-1 to the Cayman Islands.

For first-round play, the squads were drawn into four groups - three of six teams and one comprised of five teams.

Group winners will advance to the semifinals on August 23 at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex. The match for third place and the final will take place two days later at the same venue.

Each of the games in the tournament featured two 35-minute halves.

Twenty-three countries participated in the tournament.

The Cayman Islands has hosted several major sporting events recently despite its population of only 55,000.

In December, it welcomed the Women’s World Squash Championships and has also seen Olympic 100m champion Usain Bolt run at the Cayman Invitational.

The CONCACAF Under-15 Championship, however, is the largest-ever in terms of the number of participants.

Nearly 700 players, coaches, staff and dignitaries flocked to the island for the event.

CONCACAF president Jeffrey Webb touted the importance of the inaugural CONCACAF U-15 tournament on a press release issued on the organisation’s website.

“For CONCACAF, we organise competitions from under-15 all the way up to the Gold Cup, which is what you saw last week. We had close to 500,000 people in attendance and our approach at CONCACAF is the exact same for this one,” he said.

“The same professionalism, branding of the stadiums, security personnel, infrastructure that we put in place at the stadiums for the semifinals and final of the Gold Cup is the same approach even for the under-15 competition.”

Webb sees the under-15 tournament as fulfilment of his development programme.

“I’ve always believed that my country is the best in the world and there is nothing that we can’t do,” he noted. “And really, I think this is a step to show the Cayman government and the population that once we are united when it comes to sports tourism it is something we can achieve.”