KINGSTON – The stage is set for a thrilling con­clu­sion to the 2025 Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup, as Ja­maica’s Mount Pleas­ant FA and the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic’s Uni­ver­si­dad O&M FC pre­pare for a win­ner-take-all bat­tle this Tues­day at Kingston’s In­de­pen­dence Park in Ja­maica.

Hold­ing a nar­row 1-0 ag­gre­gate lead, Mount Pleas­ant re­turns to its home turf with the tro­phy firm­ly in its sights.

The Ja­maican club se­cured its ad­van­tage in a hard-fought First Leg in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, with Ki­moni Bai­ley’s de­ci­sive goal prov­ing the dif­fer­ence.

That vic­to­ry was built on the foun­da­tion of Mount Pleas­ant’s im­preg­nable de­fence, which has been the team’s hall­mark through­out the tour­na­ment.

Led by goal­keep­er Ta­fari Cham­bers, the back­line has con­ced­ed a mere two goals, with the First Leg shutout mark­ing their fifth clean sheet of the cam­paign.

A win would see Mount Pleas­ant be­come the sec­ond straight Ja­maican club to claim the Caribbean Cup, fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of Cav­a­lier SC’s 2024 tri­umph.

Stand­ing in their way is a de­ter­mined Uni­ver­si­dad O&M FC, which is chas­ing his­to­ry and its first-ever vic­to­ry over the Ja­maican side.

The vis­i­tors will look to tour­na­ment stand­out Her­ard Frantze­ty to ig­nite their at­tack. Frantze­ty, the com­pe­ti­tion’s lead­ing scor­er with four goals, will be the key to un­lock­ing Mount Pleas­ant’s stal­wart de­fence.

O&M will need a com­plete team ef­fort, and they have a po­ten­tial game-chang­er be­tween the posts. Goal­keep­er Iraitz Gel­bentzu has been a rev­e­la­tion, lead­ing the tour­na­ment with an im­pres­sive 26 saves and giv­ing his team a chance in any con­test.

The his­to­ry be­tween these two clubs favours the hosts. In their first-ever meet­ing dur­ing the Group Stage on Sep­tem­ber 30, Mount Pleas­ant emerged with a 2-0 vic­to­ry thanks to goals from Ra­di­al Irv­ing and Ranal­do Big­gs.

While both teams have al­ready se­cured cov­et­ed spots in the 2026 Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons Cup, the ul­ti­mate prize re­mains. The Caribbean Cup cham­pi­on will not on­ly lift the tro­phy but al­so earn a cru­cial bye di­rect­ly in­to the Round of 16 of the con­ti­nen­tal com­pe­ti­tion.

If the two-leg se­ries ends tied on ag­gre­gate, the away goals rule will be the first tiebreak­er. If still lev­el, the fi­nal will be de­cid­ed by ex­tra time and, if nec­es­sary, a penal­ty shootout.

CMC