Puerto Rico 3 Anguilla 1; Cayman Islands 1 St. Martin 1

Oct 05, 2010 Sports

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Watched  by a partisan crowd, hosts and favourites of the Digicel Caribbean Cup (DCC) Group A got off to a winning start. Although dominating possession throughout they did stutter a bit in the second half and gave their fans some nervous moments when the score was at 2-1.
Indeed the Anguilla team expressed their disappointment in the post match press conference for not getting a penalty when the referee awarded a free kick for a challenge that appeared extremely close to the edge of the square. It would have been their second penalty and Head Coach Scott Cooper commented that “it is very difficult for a referee to award two penalties to the same team in a match…..it takes a very brave referee to do just that.”
While the pitch conditions were difficult Puerto Rico made light of this, they demonstrated a top class passing game, and showed composure on the ball at every position on the field. At times in the first half, Anguilla must have felt like they were chasing shadows. After a period of sustained pressure and a number of chances Puerto Rico’s first goal came on 27 minutes when Joshua Hansen curled an outstanding free kick from the edge of the area over the wall into the back of the net. Liddie Ryan in the Anguilla goal was stuck to the spot.
It was much of the same after the goal and their 2nd came on 31 minutes from an excellent passing interchange down the left, when the ball was centered for Christopher Megaloudis who had enough space and time to make the finish look relatively simple.
It was not until the 42nd minute when Anguilla got their first shot at the Puerto Rico goal.  It was well off target, so at half-time, the question seemed to be just how many Puerto Rico could score.
While Puerto Rico had the majority of possession again in the 2nd period it was a more competitive display from Anguilla. They played with greater intensity and didn’t let the Puerto Rican’s have as much time on the ball. On 53 minutes they got their reward when Adonijah Richardson scored from the penalty spot.
Puerto Rico continued to attack down the flanks in particular, Andres Cabrero causing damage down the right with his counterpart Noah Delgado doing much the same on the left.
The longer it stayed at 2-1 the more nervous and anxious the home support got. They were finally put at ease when Megaloudis pounced on a bouncing ball in the penalty area to volley a shot high into the top left hand corner, an excellent finish from the striker.
The opening match was delayed due to large quantities of surface water on the pitch from heavy rainfall earlier in the day on Saturday.  However, this did not dampen the spirits of the two teams, they came out of the blocks firing as you would expect. There were a number of physical exchanges and heavy challenges right from the start as both teams signaled their intent to start the Digicel Cup in a positive fashion.
St. Martin definitely looked the brighter making a very good attempt to overcome the tricky pitch with some neat passing moves. Nicolas Chalmet in midfield showed some nice touches in the early exchanges and nearly put centre forward Derville Virgile through after only eight minutes, this attack lead to two corners in quick succession with a half chance falling to Cedric Adam with the first shot of the match.
Cayman were adopting a more direct approach choosing to get the ball forward as quickly as possible; this caused the St. Martin defense a few anxious moments. A long throw from the right bounced awkwardly and hit the unfortunate St. Martin defender on the hand, the referee pointed to the spot without hesitation. Paul Brown stepped up for Cayman and slotted the ball home into the bottom left hand corner – one nil.  Perhaps a little against the run of play Cayman had the lead.
The Goal provided Cayman with the boost they needed, and they were on the attack straight away when Mark Ebanks played an excellent deep cross for Theron Wood but his header went straight to the keeper. He could not get enough power behind the header.
The 2nd half was less than a minute old when Virgile from St. Martin was through on goal only for the keeper to take him down this time, the referee showed the second yellow to goalkeeper Jermaine Brown, so he was off. Ten against ten now, St. Martin were back in the match.  Soon after, St. Martin’s danger man, Virgile dispossessed the Cayman centre back on the right side of the penalty area and produced a fantastic strike that rattled the back of the net. A very good individual goal that was a fitting reward for the player’s effort and a great goal for the opener in the DCC.  While a draw might have just about have been a fair result, Cayman will probably be a little disappointed by the sequence of events that let St. Martin back into the match.
Group action continues today with Puerto Rico taking on St. Martin while Anguilla tackle the Cayman Islands.

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