Trinidad and Tobago’s Club Sando will be confident of their chances in the second leg of their Concacaf Caribbean Cup clash with Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant Football Academy, the reigning champions at Sabina Park, Kingston, Jamaica, on Thursday.
This match, after the Angus Eve-coached Club Sando, making their debut in the tournament, battled to a 1-1 draw in their first-leg encounter at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain on Wednesday night and may count themselves unlucky not to have taken the win, albeit with some poor finishing.
Winners of their five-team Group B round-robin stage series,Mount Pleasant coached by Theodore Whitmore took the lead in the 11th minute when striker Warner Brown ran onto a long-flighted pass from Daniel Green down the middle between Club Sando defenders, Jaheim Joseph, and captain Josiah Cooper and fired past the advancing goalkeeper Teshorne Ragoo.
The visitors then had a clear chance to double their advantage in the 36th minute when Club Sando’s Joshua Alexander was whistled for a handled ball on a sliding challenge on Trayvone Reid by referee Norberto Da Silva of Curacao.
However, from the resulting spot kick, the stuttering, slow-stepping Reid saw his weak right-footed effort easily stopped by Ragoo to keep his team in the contest.
Three minutes later, Mount Pleasant left back Kimoni Bailey also came close to extending his team’s lead, but his left-footed free kick just skimmed the top left corner of the crossbar.
On the resumption, Eve’s men came out as a refocused group, and in the 56th minute, Club Sando drew level when a right-footed effort from the top of the 18-yard box by Jaron Pascall ricocheted off the base of the right post into the path of Daniel David, who cleverly wrong-footed his marker and fired home a low right-footed past goalkeeper Shaquan Davis on his near post.
Club Sando then came close twice to finding a late winner, first through substitute Marc Wharfe, who saw his left-footed volleyed attempt miraculously cleared off the line with a lunging header from defender centre back Kyle Ming with goalkeeper Davis nowhere in sight in the 85th, and four minutes later, another second-half introduction, Shackiel Henry’s right-footed blast which cannoned off the crossbar and back into play, as the match ended a 1-1 draw.
With the draw, Mount Pleasant Academy extended its unbeaten away run in the Concacaf Caribbean Cup to nine matches (W6 D3), failing to score in just one of those encounters, a goalless draw against Trinidad and Tobago Police FC in 2024, ahead of the return leg in Kingston next week.
Portmore whips Violette 3-1
On Tuesday night at Sabina Park, Jamaica’s Portmore United defeated Haiti’s Violette AC 3-1 in the first leg of their semifinals.
Violette AC got on the board first in the 39th when Jean-Fabrice Védrine ripped a well-placed curler right into the upper corner from just outside the box.
However, Portmore United netted the equalizer in the 63rd as Javier Brown pounced on a rebound off the keeper.
Just 11 minutes later, in the 74th, Brown got his second of the night when he smashed a right-footed blast off the bounce to record his brace and put the Jamaican side in the lead.
The hosts put a stamp on the win in the 90+5’ as they took advantage of a counterattack and Tedj Bryan dribbled past the keeper to finish it off.
Violette AC and Portmore United will play the Second Leg of the Semifinals on Tuesday, October 20 at Estadio Cibao in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.
The winners of the semifinals will contest the final while the losers will play for the all-important third place play-off with the tournament champion, runner-up, and third-place finisher all qualifying for the 2027 Concacaf Champions Cup, with the champion receiving a bye to the round-of-16.
Meanwhile, last year, the T&T Defence Force was stopped at the semifinal stage by Mount Pleasant after a 5-1 loss at home and a 1-0 road win for a 5-2 aggregate result before they beat Cibao 4-2 on aggregate, 3-0, and 1-2.
On Thursday, defending champions Mount Pleasant FA defeated Cavalier FC 1-0 in an all-Jamaica Group B clash at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica.
With the result, Mount Pleasant finished the Group Stage in first place in Group B with seven points, while former winners Cavalier FC ended with two points.
Portmore United earned a 2-1 win against Dominican Republic’s Cibao FC at Estadio Cibao in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, to clinch the runner-up spot.
