Vincy Heat are 2015 WIFA champions

Following in the footsteps of the females, the St Vincent and the Grenadines senior male football team, has pouched the 2015 Windward Islands Football Association (WIFA) tournament.

The Vincy Heat outfit pipped Dominica one-nil last Saturday night at the Phillip Marcellin Ground in Vieux Fort St Lucia, to lift the title.{{more}}

A Myron Samuel goal in the 22nd minute was the difference in the score line, in what was a virtual final, after both teams went into the encounter unbeaten.

Needing only a draw, the Vincentians did better than the asking, when Samuel netted from an Emerald George cross.

Reports say that the Vincentians strung a total of 15 passes before the resulting goal.

The Vincentians ended the tournament with nine points, recording a 100 percent record of wins, having edged out host St Lucia 2-1 on Thursday. This added to a 3-2 win over Grenada on the opening night on Tuesday.

Late come from behind goals from George and Samuel had erased a Romiel Felix strike, when St Vincent and the Grenadines met St Lucia on Thursday.

Dominica’s journey to last Saturday’s meeting with St Vincent and the Grenadines began with a 1-1 draw with St Lucia on Tuesday, which was followed by a 2-1 sidestepping of Grenada.

In Saturday’s first match, Grenada beat St Lucia 2-0, to take the third place and condemn the host to the last place.

Captain of the champion team of St Vincent and the Grenadines Dorren Hamlet told SEARCHLIGHT last Sunday that the win was a pay-off for the sacrifices they made, having to push themselves to train three times per day during the last week leading up to the tournament.

“For me, as captain, I am proud of the guys, because they wanted the success…. The females went before us and won the first ever tournament and that was an extra motivation for us,” Hamlet noted.

Hamlet, who missed the second match versus St Lucia after receiving a red card for two bookable offences against Grenada, praised stand-in captain Myron Samuel, whom he said “marshalled the troops well versus St Lucia.”

Letting the success of the WIFA tournament sink in, Hamlet, however, said he is looking forward anxiously to the World Cup qualifiers June 10 and 14 with Guyana.

Revived in 2013 after a 10-year absence, Grenada trumped that year when St Vincent and the Grenadines hosted, and St Lucia won in 2014 in Dominica.

As the tournament makes its rounds, Grenada is slated to host the 2016 edition of the WIFA tournament.