Sint Maarten's Chovanie Amatkarijo is seen dribbling while his teammates Ties Kerssies (Left) and Ilounga Pata look on during their final training session to prepare for the match against Haiti, in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico on Sunday.
MAYAGUEZ, Puerto Rico—After a convincing 2-0 victory over Aruba on Friday, the Sint Maarten national football team hope to continue their bright start to the CONCACAF Nations League Group B against Haiti today, Monday.
With both teams winning their opening matches – Haiti crushed hosts Puerto Rico 4-1 – the encounter is likely to decide who will take sole possession of top spot in the group.
Although coach Piet de Jong described the coming match against the Caribbean football giants as a David vs Goliath matchup, he is quietly confident his boys can pull off a surprise. “We believe we are capable to accomplish superhuman results,” he said.
“Most of our team are really young boys who still have so much potential. I see them grow every game,” de Jong told The Daily Herald during a video call from Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. “Last year we made things really difficult for Guadeloupe.”
It is all a question of adjusting your organization, to know where to put pressure to hurt your opponent, he argued “We will have to transition even faster from offense to defense and keep the lines tight,” he said. “That way we hope to frustrate them because we saw in the game against Puerto Rico that they have a short fuse.”
In essence, Haiti play with five strikers, three actual strikers and two offensive midfielders. “The trick will be to utilize the space between the five attackers and five defensive players,” noted de Jong.
He has also cautioned his players not to give up easy freekicks around their own box. “Haiti have a really tall centre forward and both their centre backs are also physically strong,” agreed team captain Kay Gerritsen.
If Sint Maarten can manage to keep a tight defense, De Jong believes his team can hurt Haiti. “We have players who athletic and technically proficient. Some can take on and dribble past several players at once if the situations requires it. We create chances and can score in every game.”
..Especially the left side of Sint Maarten is tough to keep in check for any opponent. Midfielder Quinton Cristina earned himself CONCACAF’s player of the match against Aruba with his quick dribbling and darting runs, while Chovanie Amatkarijo was equally elusive on the left wing.
Should Haiti proof to strong, De Jong hopes his team will keep the score line tight and not give up too many goals. Last year they gave up too many goals in the first games and had to fight hard to accomplish a comeback. “I told my players they don’t want to let it come down again to the last 10 minutes of the last game.”
His team have come out of the Aruba game unscathed and are all fully fit to play. With the exception of Gerwin, “Smally“ Lake. The team’s leading scorer is still trying to regain full fitness after recovering from an injury and is not yet ready to play a full game. That, however, did not stop him from scoring a brilliant goal from 25 meters out to put his team ahead in the 80th minute against Aruba.
That Sint Maarten left it so late to put the result beyond doubt came down to wasting a hatful of chances with especially Elmer de Vries and Shawn Illidge coming close. Left center back Ronan Olivacci would eventually determine the final score in injury time when he recovered a ball in midfield before setting up his own goal with the help of Amatkarijo after a 60-meter sprint.
Aruba had surprised Sin Maarten at the beginning of the game with their early press. Goalkeeper Tyrell Richardson was forced to make a couple of important saves, the most outstanding of which was with his right foot when a Haiti striker was out through on goal.
Sint Maarten made use of the water break after 20 minutes to change things around with the center backs, choosing to switch the ball form side to side faster and forcing the Aruban defense back with deep offensive passes.
