The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas men’s national beach soccer team saw their storybook run come to an anticlimactic finish yesterday evening at the 2025 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship hosted at the Malcolm Park Beach Soccer Facility.

After concluding the group phase as the top finisher in Group B, the host team lost a nail-biter 3-2 against Guatemala in the semifinals on Saturday night and got outplayed by the USA 6-2 in the third place matchup yesterday.

Meanwhile, El Salvador defeated Guatemala 2-1 in the finals to claim the CONCACAF Beach Soccer title honours.

The 0-2 showing over the weekend left the “Junkanoo Beach Boyz” with yet another fourth-place finish at the biennial tournament. Francis Farberoff, head coach of Team Bahamas, spoke about what went wrong for the host team in the final two matchups.

“I think it was a heartbreaker yesterday. The guys put in a lot of work and we fell short yesterday. The game was right there and we were about to take the momentum of the game and, with that unlucky bounce, they scored the winning goal and I think that deflated the group. We tried to motivate them and keep them going - it is just the game today, fighting for third place wasn’t enough I guess. We started but the other team wanted it more and we just didn’t compete as hard as the other team,” he said.

Goalkeeper Michael Butler got Team Bahamas on the scoreboard first with a goal at the 7th minute of the first period.

The USA, who lost to The Bahamas in the group phase, took some time before getting their first goal, but finally broke the barrier when Nico Perea scored the equaliser for the visitors at the 2nd minute to conclude the first period of play.

The USA’s Antonio Chavez connected on a bicycle kick within the first minute of the second period to put his team on top 2-1. 

Team USA kept the goals coming with Tanner Akol and Cody Valcarcel scoring at the 3rd and one minute mark of the second period.

The “Junkanoo Beach Boyz” were already in an insurmountable 4-1 hole headed into the third period but the USA continued to score.

Ricardo Carvalho and Gabe Silveira joined the scoring action with goals at the 6th and 5th minute marks of the third period.

The host team’s Wood Julmis made good on an open goal to score the second point for The Bahamas and his fifth goal of the tournament.

Despite coming up short in their bid to qualify for the 2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup, coach Farberoff expressed that Team Bahamas has a lot of talent but needs more experience going forward. “I think we have a lot of talent and we just need to play more games. We need more experience. There are guys like Brandon the USA was putting two players on him that means they were doubling him so somebody was open so we are getting respect from other teams in that sense. They were pressing our keeper hard also because he is dangerous but the guys need more games, more experiences and more tournaments because in situations like it was yesterday 2-2 they are gonna know what to do,” he said

Prior to the “Junkanoo Beach Boyz” loss to the USA, the team suffered a heartbreaking loss against Guatemala on Saturday night.

The Bahamas had a chance to prevail in the final moments of the game after Brandon Adderley was right on target for a bicycle kick with 20 seconds on the clock in the second period.

Adderley tied the score at 2-2 for the home team but Guatemala’s Pablo Crocker won the match with a right-footed strike at the 5th minute of the third period.

Crocker’s match-winning goal helped Guatemala to advance to their first Beach Soccer World Cup.

Adderley expressed that Saturday’s loss was deflating but now it on to the next.

“We just came from a 3-2 loss against Guatemala and it was a good game but we didn’t put away our chances…We came out today and just said we come to play for the fans because people love the sport and we just came out to show what we got. After everything we are still gonna be training and ready for the next qualifiers and the next tournament,” he said.

El Salvador and Guatemala were the top two nations to advance to the 2025 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in Victoria, Seychelles.