Vincy Heat to turn it up against Suriname today

St Vincent and the Grenadines’ senior men’s football team plans to turn it up, when they meet Suriname from 3 p.m. today at the Arnos Vale Playing Field, in a crucial top of the table clash in the CONCACAF Nations League.

Drawn in group D of League B, today’s encounter features the two unbeaten outfits.

Suriname though heads the group with maximum six points earned from wins against Dominica (2-1) and Nicaragua (6-0).

Vincy Heat are on four points, after gaining a 1-1 draw with Nicaragua and beat Dominica 1-0.

Going into today’s match, it is nothing less than a win, according to Vincy Heat’s head coach Kendale Mercury.

“It is football logic; they are on six points, we can’t make them go on nine and leave us on four… We have to absolutely focus on taking three points here at home,” Mercury cited.

Expounding the significance of today’s match and the position of his team, Mercury reasoned, “We don’t want to put ourselves in a position to have to win our last three matches”.

The head coach admitted that whilst getting past Suriname today is doable, “We know that it is not going to be an easy game, as like us, they are eyeing a Gold Cup spot too”.

Apart from getting the three points and go ahead of Suriname, Mercury noted that the players are motivated by the fact that a Gold Cup spot is there for the taking.

“Our objective coming into this group was always to come top of the group, but now the players realise that there is a unique opportunity for them, because when we started, we didn’t know that first place would get an automatic Gold Cup spot, so it is an added bonus,” Mercury related.

The Vincentian team has been in camp since October 1, and Mercury revealed that he and his coaching staff were able to iron out some of the technical, physical, tactical, social and psychological kinks during that period.

Following today’s match, the Vincentians head out to Suriname tomorrow (Saturday) to face them again in the reverse fixture at the Andre Kamperveen Stadium in Paramaribo on Monday night.

Equally confident as well of the return leg, Mercury said he has some tactical moves up his sleeve, which he plans to unleash in Suriname.

“When you analyse the other teams, if they make changes, it is one or two… Last time, we were able to make six changes to our squad, which is why we need a deep squad,” Mercury said.

Following the double fixtures against Suriname, Vincy Heat will host Nicaragua on November 15 and play their final match versus Dominica in Dominica on November 18.