Vincy Heat looking to save face versus Cuba today

AFTER CONCEDING TEN goals, and not forcing the Guatemala keeper to make at least one save, last Friday at the Estadio Nacional Mareo Flores in Guatemala City, St Vincent and the Grenadines’ Vincy Heat will be looking to save face when they meet Cuba from 4 pm today at the Kirani James Athletics Stadium in Grenada.

This will be the Vincentians’ fourth and final match in Group C of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers.

They enter today’s encounter on three points, having registered a 3-0 win over the British Virgin Islands in March, after they were blanked by Curacao.

When Vincy Heat met Guatemala on Friday, they were drenched 10-0 by the host, as ten different goal scorers entered their names on the score sheet.

Scoring five goals in each half, Guatemala was on a hunt to fill up the Vincentians’ goal, knowing that the differential can be decisive between them and Curacao, for a place in the second round. Hence, the Guatemalans came out blazing, registering their first goal in the second minute, through Darwin Lom. Rudy Barrientos double the lead in the 12th minute, Oscar Santis extended it in the 16th, while Moises Hernandez scored a penalty in the 33rd minute. When Gerardo Gordillo struck in the 41st minute, it gave proof that St Vincent and the Grenadines was out of the contest.

The second half was almost a carbon copy of the first, as Luis Martinez continued the host’s dominance with a 52nd minute strike, followed by Robin Bertancouth’s item in the 66th minute, to make it 7-0.

A penalty converted by Marvin Ceballos in the 79th, and goals by Jorge Vargas and John Mendez, in the 85th and 89th minutes, respectively, put the topping on Guatemala’s rout. It meant that from the three matches, Vincy Heat has scored three goals, while conceding 15.

It was the fifth straight defeat on St Vincent and the Grenadines by Guatemala in World Cup qualifiers, but Friday’s margin was one fewer than the 11-0 win by Mexico in 1992 in Mexico City.

The World Cup qualifiers history between St Vincent and the Grenadines and Guatemala, shows that the two first met in 2011, Guatemala won 4-0 in Guatemala City and 3-0, here at the Arnos Vale Playing Field.

The two were engaged in the 2018 campaign, and Guatemala won the first leg at Arnos Vale in 2016, 4-0, and took the return leg, 9-3 in Guatemala City.

The results show that St Vincent and the Grenadines have conceded 30 goals versus Guatemala, while netting 3.

However, the countries’ first meeting was at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 1996 in the USA, with Guatemala coming out victors, 3-0, at the Anaheim Stadium, California.

St Vincent and the Grenadines’ starting XI last Friday: Jadiel Chance, Jamol Yorke, (Nazir Mc Burnette 80’) Ted Roberts, Jahvin Sutherland, Tristan Marshall (Kennijah Joseph 90+1), Brad Richards (Oryan Velox 46’), Camal Bess (Diel Spring 32 ‘), Gidson Francis, Kurtlon Williams, Kyle Edwards (Zidane Sam 71’) Cornelius Stewart.

Unused subs – Garwin Davis, Josh Stowe and Marlon Simmons.