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By Neto Baptiste
Head coach of the All Saints United FC and former national player, Schyan Jeffers, is hoping the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) will review and change the format currently being used in it’s Club Shield tournament.
This after the Antigua and Barbuda team was eliminated after just two matches in Group C of the tournament despite each of the four groups housing six teams.
“Having six teams in a group and only playing two games then there is not much a team can do, it’s just the luck of the Irish to make you go through because if you happen to play against two easy teams then you will have a great opportunity in going through. In this tournament, we got two hard teams to play in St Maarten who have been here for the last three or four years and we also played Transvaal who is a professional team who won the [Suriname] league last year and are at the top of the league right now so they are a very good team and we knew it was going to be tough for us,” he said.
United won one and drew the other of their two matches to finish the group stage with four points and in the third position on the standings. Only one team, Weymouth Wales FC out of Barbados, advanced to the semifinals round of the annual tournament.
CFU utilizes the Swiss format for this year’s tournament, which saw the 24 participating teams, divided into four groups of six. Each team will play two matches within their group, and the winner of each group will advance to the semi-finals. The two finalists will then qualify for the Concacaf Caribbean Cup.
Despite not advancing to the next round, Jeffers credited his players for showing grit and determination.
“The first game, we dominated the game where we kept possession. We moved the ball around and we managed the game good. The second game was a hard game in SV Transvaal but we played a good game and showed a lot of courage. We didn’t start good and we played two different halves of football. We were flat first half and in the second half we found ourselves. We missed a lot of chances and we ended up with a draw but I am very happy because we get to see the level of football we have to play so that we can align the club core values and beliefs and where we want to go. I am also happy that we could get to expose some players to another level so that they know what it takes to be at a higher level,” he said.
On Sunday, All Saints United opened their Group C campaign with a comfortable 3-1 win over St Maarten’s SCSA Eagles before playing to a scoreless draw with Suriname’s SV Transvaal on Tuesday.
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