Guadeloupe and Haiti tie 1 - 1

[georg]

Guadeloupe and Haiti tie 1 - 1

http://www.terra.com/deportes/articulo/html/fox403475.htm

Guadeloupe shocked Haiti with their good all around play.

MIAMI, FL -The exotic team of Guadeloupe got to Miami trying to show everyone in CONCACAF that they are ready for this level of playing. With their star Jocelyn Angloma, a former French international, the Caribbean team was ready to bring their fearless style of soccer onto the field.

The team, however, did not think of the fact that the Haitians were going to be playing at home in Miami, since the Orange Bowl hosted plenty of Haiti fans, whom did not stop singing and dancing throughout the game.

The Haitians were not very comfortable on the pitch, and they fouled a bit too much during the first couple of minutes of the match. To a certain extent, they were relying on the innocence of Guadeloupe’s attackers, since Jean-Jacques Pierre kept screaming at his defense to push out. Because of this, Haiti got their first scare at the 15th minute, when David Fleurival found the ball 35 yards away from the net and without any clear opposition in front of him. His shot went over Gabart Fenelon’s goal, but Haiti noticed that they were not playing against any ordinary team.

Pierre-Richard Bruny, Haiti’s captain, was the man in charge of commanding his team, and he did so from the 20th minute on. Always correcting his midfielders, he managed to take care of the few chances of Guadeloupe, while still setting everyone straight in front of him.

One of the players who took Bruny’s commands to heart was Brunel Fucein. He was the first player to bring some danger to Grandel’s goal, when at the 20th minute he shot from 25 yards only inches away from the crossbar. But Guadeloupe kept pushing up looking for a surprising break in Haiti’s defense. Although they did not get the break, Fiston, the most dangerous man in Guadeloupe, was able to pull off a shot from the right of their attack that went over Fenelon only to hit the crossbar and end up out of bounds.

When Guadeloupe was playing its best soccer, Haiti’s Boucicaut flew past his defender and found himself inside the box. Sommeil was only able to stop him with a foul and, at the 34th minute, Mones Cherry scored the first goal of the game from the penalty spot.

The goal obviously hindered Guadeloupe’s chances of taking the first three points in the tournament, but it seemed it also affected them psychologically. Capoue, whom had been having a decent game up until that point, completely disappeared from the field and Haiti started moving the ball without any opposition from the Guadelupean players.

The second half started just as the first had finished, although slowly but surely Guadeloupe began to show that their attackers also wanted to speak for themselves. On perhaps the best play of the whole game, Capoue broke lose on the left and made it to the end line. His cross found Cedrick Fiston wide open in the small box and the forward only had to tap it into the back of the net.

The equalizer gave wings to Guadaloupe and they tried to push their way through the Haitian defensive lines, but they seemed to be running out of air. Plus, Coach Salnot substituted Fiston, the best man on the Guadeloupe side, and it seriously affected their attacking chances.

The last minutes of the match diluted between some harsh tackles and the substitutions made by both coaches. Boucicaut made the fans rise from their seats at the 84th minute when he dribbled past 2 players inside the box, only to take a very soft shot that was saved by Grandel without major problems.

In the end, the tie made justice to what both teams showed on the field, since neither seemed to be willing to put the extra effort to take the three points.

Terra/CONCACAF

[JamesW]

So much for Haiti being a dark horse...

[Paddy]

quote:Originally posted by Jamit

So much for Haiti being a dark horse...

We beat Haiti in the 2001 Gold Cup and they looked poor in that game. In their next game they beat a good Ecuadorian team. As already mentioned, it is one game for Haiti and it is one game for us. Things need to be kept in perspective.

[Massive Attack]

We need to be careful. The last thing we want is Cuba 2003 to happen again.

[loyola]

quote:Originally posted by Massive Attack

We need to be careful. The last thing we want is Cube 2003 to happen again.

Agree but we were outplayed by CR in 2003, so it wasn't a surprise to see us go down against Cuba.

I think the current team looks far more dangerous up front and after seeing Haiti and Guadeloupe yesterday I think we'll get at least one win in those 2 games.

[georg]

Haiti readies for the Gold Cup

Soccer is a religion, and a rare unifying force, for strife-torn nation

By Kevin Baxter, Times Staff Writer

June 6, 2007

LA Times

MIAMI — It's late on a Sunday afternoon, the skies are slate gray with the threat of another violent South Florida rainstorm and the field is more gravel than grass. Yet the aluminum grandstands at Florida International University will soon be packed with more than 10,000 soccer fans wearing T-shirts, jackets and bandanas in the familiar blue and red of the Haitian flag.

The match is just a "friendly" between teams from neighboring churches in Miami's burgeoning Haitian community. And the level of play is spotty at best. But none of that seems to matter.

"For the Haitian people, soccer is a religion by itself," says a fan who identifies himself as Pastor Boul, the Creole word for ball. "It's the only thing that gathers everyone together."

And few people are more in need of unity than Haiti's. Wracked by decades of poverty, crushing unemployment and bloody street violence, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere — one termed "a failed state" by the United Nations — is long overdue for a little good news. Which is where Haiti's national soccer program comes in.

In January, Haiti stunned Trinidad and Tobago to win the Caribbean Cup for the first time in its history. That also qualified Haiti's team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup, where it begins play today against Guadeloupe in Miami's Orange Bowl before what organizers expect will be a large and raucous pro-Haitian crowd.

The United States and Mexico are overwhelming favorites in the Gold Cup, although Haiti is seen as having a chance to reach the quarterfinals. Within the Caribbean soccer community, Haiti has long been ranked behind Trinidad and Tobago — which played in the 2006 World Cup — and Jamaica, which last appeared in the World Cup in 1998.

Still, if Haiti advanced to the Gold Cup's quarterfinals, it would mark a successful showing for a country that made its only appearance in the World Cup in 1974.

"In every country you have to have something that can bring people joy," says Jamil Jean Jacques, a midfielder on the Haitian national team. "If we win the Gold Cup, I think a lot of things are going to change. People are going to enjoy it.

"The president couldn't bring the Haitian people joy. Soccer. That's the only [thing] that can bring the Haitian people satisfaction."

Jacques knows firsthand about the transformative powers of soccer. Three years ago his father was killed in a street clash in Haiti.

"It was because of the violence," he says, using the catch-all phrase many Haitians employ to describe the years of terror inspired by street thugs and kidnappers, whose grip on the country is only now beginning to loosen. Instead Jacques and his brother, Bitielo, have taken their silent anger out on the soccer field with Jamil carrying the national team into the Gold Cup and Bitielo helping the junior team earn its first-ever qualifying to the FIFA U-17 World Cup this summer.

"The violence in Haiti is really bad right now," Jacques said. "But we players, we know the need to let the Haitian people forget about violence for a moment. Right now the violence has slowed down because they know Haiti is going to play [for] the Gold Cup."

Stephane Guillaume, a national team defender, agrees. "In Haiti, there's a lot of problems that only soccer can solve … because they love that," he says. "When soccer's being played, the Haitian people forget about everything."

Even the kidnappers take a break.

"Kidnapping has become an industry where those guys are making money off of that," says Jacques Fitzgerald Lemoine, who fled Haiti as a teenager but returns frequently to visit family. "But when Haiti is playing soccer, those guys are Haitian too. During the games they are at home watching. There's no crime when there's a soccer game."

The sport's importance in Haitian society dates to pre-Columbian times when the Taino Indians, who then inhabited the island, celebrated important festivals with a game that closely resembled modern-day soccer. Despite the country's limited international success in soccer, the sport maintains an emotional hold on Haiti. Virtually every street and vacant plot of land there has been pressed into service as a soccer pitch at one time or another. "Soccer is everywhere in Haiti. That's how I started playing: in the streets, playing with kids," Jacques says.

Haitian soccer got its next big push from Pele and the Brazilian national team, which together won three World Cups from 1958 to 1970. Ninety-five percent of the Haitian population is black, so the success of Brazil's largely black team was inspiring.

"Brazil was the first team to win the World Cup with blacks. And the greatest player in soccer was a black guy," says Lemoine, a mortgage broker in Florida, home to more than 40% of the half-million Haitians living in the U.S. "So Haiti embraced soccer like Canada embraced hockey."

And Haiti, like Brazil, wound up breaking a barrier of its own when it became just the second Caribbean country to qualify for the World Cup in 1974. "I was 9 years old and I remember that day," Lemoine says. "An hour before the [opening-round] game there was nobody in the street. The Duvalier regime put some TVs in parks and the parks were full. Everybody had a little transistor radio in their ear. It was something awesome."

There are some who feel that, with the recent success of Haiti's national team and the World Cup appearance of the under-17 team this summer, the Haitian soccer program may be entering a new phase.

And that, many Haitians hope, will provide a positive image of their homeland to the world at large.

"1974. That's going to be my reference," says Henry Sanon, a youth coach and former president of South Florida's Haitian soccer federation. "People thought of Haiti in a different way. In the news [now] … you hear about the poverty. You hear about the crime. People coming on boats and things like that.

"But the reality still exists that there's another world. Hopefully if we keep advancing people will have a different way to think about Haiti."

[redhat]

GolTV is showing replays of all matches pretty much during the week.

Check out http://www.goltv.ca/schedule/schedule.pdf

Both teams, Haiti & Guadeloupe have played, imo, crap soccer, with lots of

simulation and attempts at individual flair. The Haiti goal was a PK as a result

of a lazy clearance by the Guadeloupe defender. The Haitian keeper is always

out of position, and fortunate that the score remained 1-1.

However, like everyone, it's better not to underestimate these teams. Our lessons

against Martinique, Cuba, and Guatemala in the past tells us NEVER take anyone for

granted, as the weather, injuries and the consistency of the officiating would factor in.

[strobe_z]

Here's highlights of the goals:

http://www.attachmax.com/Fiston_vs_Haiti.html?relatedFilesPageId=1

http://www.attachmax.com/Chery_vs_Guadeloupe.html?relatedFilesPageId=1

The Guadeloupe goal is nice, but the Haitian defender was waaaay out of position. The Guadeloupe foul leading to the penalty was legit (especially by CONCACAF standards), but a silly thing to do.

[JamesW]

quote:Originally posted by strobe_z

The Guadeloupe foul leading to the penalty was legit (especially by CONCACAF standards)

I didn't see it at all. The player ran right into the Guadeloupe guy. It was not like the Guadeloupe player stepped in between the Haiti player and the ball.

But what does it matter...

[strobe_z]

Well, it did look to me like the Guadeloupe player stuck his leg out when the Haitian was changing directions. His defense partner was already on the ball, so there was really no need for it. Perhaps my perception is clouded by what normally constitutes a penalty in CONCACAF. I mean, at least the guy did touch him~

[jpg75]

quote:Originally posted by strobe_z

Well, it did look to me like the Guadeloupe player stuck his leg out when the Haitian was changing directions. His defense partner was already on the ball, so there was really no need for it. Perhaps my perception is clouded by what normally constitutes a penalty in CONCACAF. I mean, at least the guy did touch him~

It was legit. If you're too clumsy to get your long, skinny leg out of the way, you deserve that called against you.

[JamesW]

quote:Originally posted by jpg75

It was legit. If you're too clumsy to get your long, skinny leg out of the way, you deserve that called against you.

Well then I guess it is just me being upset that whenever a guy gets touched and goes down a foul is called.

In my mind the Haiti player ran into the Guadeloupe player who already had his leg out. Is it really his job to move his leg out of the way?

But even if this call was called against Canada or for Canada, all we are doing is wasting our time talking about it. It was called a foul, and I can't change that.

Moving on.

[Juby]

hmmmm, with guadalope and haiti getting better (maybe martinique could start doing the same things as guadalope, in like 6 years they could have a retired thierry henry (he's got martinique origins right?) we should hold some sort of francophone championship for Concacaf, it'd probably be mutually beneficial all around to have 2 games a year or every two years guareenteed.