Trinidad and Tobago Premier Football League (TTPFL) team, Club Sando FC, suffered a 2-0 defeat to Jamaica Premier League (JPL) club Mount Pleasant Football Academy on Thursday night in their Concacaf Caribbean Cup semifinal second leg at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica.
The 3-1 aggregate result means that Mount Pleasant, the reigning champions, will defend their crown in this year’s two-legged home and away final to be played on December 1 and 5.
Meanwhile, Club Sando’s competition debut will only end with a third-place playoff. However, all is not lost for the men from San Fernando, who still have a chance to reach the Concacaf Champions Cup first round (round of 22) if they can win that playoff game.
Both teams, coached by international legends from their respective countries of origin, came into the winner-takes-all clash having drawn the first leg 1-1 on October 14 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain.
That result gave the Theodore “Tappa” Whitmore-coached Mount Pleasant team a slight advantage due to the existence of the away goals rule in this competition. However, that would only factor in the visitors’ favour if the match ended in a 0-0 stalemate, whereas a draw involving two or more goals or an outright Club Sando victory would suffice for the TTPFL team.
Goals by Warner Brown in the 57th minute and substitute Nickalia Fuller in the fourth minute of second-half added time sealed an outright win that would send the reigning champs back to the final by the end of the night in Kingston.
Winners of their five-team Group B with seven points from their four matches, Mount Pleasant laid the first salvo in the fifth minute. Cliford Thomas played in Jalmaro Calvin on the right, and he eased past Sando left-back Andre Raymond to direct a cross towards the top of the six-yard box where first-leg goalscorer Warner Brown lurked dangerously but was denied by a toe-poked clearance from Joshua Alexander, who was in the starting eleven as a replacement for Jabari Henry, who unknowingly played much of the 90 minutes in Port-of-Spain with a fractured toe.
Raymond, a recent acquisition from Finnish top-flight club Ilves Tampere, was looking to have a greater impact on the other end in the 12th minute when his left-footed cross flashed all the way across goal and was picked up on the right side of the Mount Pleasant penalty area. Alexander’s cross drew the interest of Luke Phillip, but he committed a foul on Mount Pleasant goalkeeper Shaquan Davis.
An errant backpass from Club Sando centre-back Jahiem Joseph almost gifted the Jamaicans a 13th-minute lead had it not been for the alertness of his goalkeeper Teshorn Ragoo to make a last-ditch intervention. And from the resulting corner, Brown lashed his volley high from a weak Club Sando clearance.
Ragoo’s dependability as the last line of defence for Club Sando was given even higher billing when he rushed off the line in the 27th minute to smother the ball at the feet of Calvin, who attempted to latch onto a through ball.
While Ragoo was bossing his assignments, Raymond seemed to be botching his and conceded a penalty for a needless foul against Kyle Ming in the 34th minute. Ming was heading away from the goal, attempting to retrieve a loose ball from a Mount Pleasant corner, when Raymond cynically barged into his man, compelling referee Shavin Greene to point to the spot without contemplation.
One week earlier, Mount Pleasant’s Trayvone Reid went viral when Ragoo saved his penalty at the end of a painstakingly long run-up timed at 22 seconds. Backed by Whitmore and teammates in the aftermath, Reid was entrusted again last night.
That time Ragoo guessed correctly, diving to his right to deny Reid, and last night he dived to his left after 16 seconds to get two strong hands to the ball and keep out the Jamaican again. It allowed Club Sando to take the home team in locked and 0-0 at half time.
Just 12 minutes after the restart, Mount Pleasant finally snuffed out the lead with a moment of incisiveness initiated by Daniel Green, who went on a purposeful infield run from the left before handing the ball off to Reid, and his defence-splitting pass put Brown through on goal to lash in his third item of the tournament low to Ragoo’s left.
Sando should have hit back three minutes later when Davis made a total mess of what should have been a routine save from Daniel David’s low cross from the right, only to see Phillip fail to hit the target from close range.
Their clearest chance on the night, however, fell to Pascall in the 67th minute from a right-sided David corner kick. Shackiel Henry met it with a glancing header which landed at Pascall’s feet, but the defender could not sort them out and hit a weak shot straight at a grateful Davis in the Mount Pleasant goal.
It turned out to be a miss that would return to haunt the TTPFL 2025 runners-up after an intense final 23 minutes of play.
In the fourth minute of five added on at the end of regulation and with legs tiring, they found themselves stretched in defence as Mouth Pleasant enjoyed a numerical 3-2 advantage on a counter-attack.
With the ball at the feet of Nickalia Fuller, who was introduced in the 78th, he only had one outcome in mind as he blasted a low effort past Ragoo from about 20 yards out and watched the ball ricochet off both uprights and into the net to settle the contest and send Mount Pleasant back to the final.
They could end up facing fellow JPL campaigners Portmore United, who hold a 3-1 first-leg advantage from their semifinal with Violette at Sabina Park last week. However, that second-leg clash, which was scheduled for last Tuesday at Estadio Cibao in the Dominican Republic, has since been rescheduled to Wednesday, October 28, at Sabina Park due to the Dominican Republic’s ban on Haitian clubs and national teams over recent escalating tension between both nations.
Both Concacaf Caribbean Cup finalists advance automatically to the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup, with the Caribbean Cup winner going straight to the round of 16. Club Sando will hope that an already successful and historic maiden campaign can still end with a Champions Cup first-round berth via the third-place playoff, along with the Caribbean Cup’s losing finalist.
TEAMS
Club Sando: 1 Teshorn Ragoo (GK), 14 Joshua Alexander, 16 Andre Raymond (9 Tarik Lee - 68th), 26 Jaheim Joseph, 36 Josiah Cooper (22 Malik Mieres - 73rd), 4 Jaron Pascall (17 Andell Fraser - 68th), 8 Kassidy Davidson, 11 Luke Phillip, 19 Shervonez Hamilton, 21 Daniel David (37 Adah Barclay - 81st), 6 Shackiel Henry (13 Marc Wharfe - 81st).
Unused Subs: 40 Jabari Brice (GK), 10 Keron Cornwall.
Mount Pleasant FA: 80 Shaquan Davis (GK), 4 Fitzroy Cummings, 5 Ricardo Thomas, 6 Sue-Lae McCalla (12 Kimoni Bailey - 78th), 15 Kyle Ming, 26 Cliford Thomas, 31 Demario Phillips, 9 Daniel Green (24 Devone Davis - 61st), 11 Trayvone Reid (17 Jahshaun Anglin - 67th), 77 Jalmaro Calvin (7 Nickalia Fuller - 78th), 19 Warner Brown (25 Shevon Byron - 78th).
Unused Subs: 34 Kemar Foster, 10 Nicholas Nelson, 21 Demarko Smith , 22 Jaheem Douglas, 23 Cristojay Daley, 28 Shaquille Dyer, 38 Shaqueil Bradford.
