SIMPSON BAY—Senior national team soccer player Gerwin “Smally” Lake was presented with a trophy Monday evening at the Tap and Still Bar for being the top goal scorer last year in the entire Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) nation league.
Lake scored eight goals, the top scorer of all three divisions A, B, and C. The national team was present for the presentation with all three coaches, Head Coach Piet de Jong, Assistant Coaches Harrie Kerssies and Guidarie Burton and President of the St. Maarten Football Federation, Johnny Singh. Recently promoted from C Division to B Division, the CONCACAF Nation League began in June 2022 and continues in 2023. “We played four games and the last two in March of this year, explained Piet de Jong. “We finished at the top of league C and that’s why we were promoted to level B.
We also played in the Miami Gold Cup in June of this year against French Guiana. In September we just played two games against Guadeloupe and St. Lucia and in the same window we have to play against St. Kitts and Nevis.” St. Maarten lost 5-1 to St. Lucia and 4 -0 against Guadeloupe. Johnny Singh brushed off those two losses, putting it down to a “learning experience.” “So the next two games for us are really important, critical if you like. We need the points,” said de Jong, adding that the level of the team continues to grow and develop as new players join. It’s a young team with an average age of 21 to 22.” Striker Lake (27) scored his eight goals last year in C division in 2022 and is yet to score this year. For his tally of eight he hit the back of the net four times against Turks and Caicos, three times against Bonaire, and once against the US Virgin Islands. “It’s harder now in Group B,” he joked. “But I’ll be giving my all in the next games.”
With the Raoul Illidge pitch not fit for purpose, St. Maarten plays its next home game against St. Kitts and Nevis in Anguilla this coming Thursday. There are four more games to go. On October 15, St. Maarten plays St. Kitts in St. Kitts. “We need to make less mistakes,” added de Jong ahead of Thursday’s game in Anguilla. “Because of personal mistakes against St. Lucia we had overall 62% possession. And against Guadeloupe we were unlucky. We had two penalty kicks against us. In my opinion there were two off-sides but there was no video assistant referee (VAR). Besides that, the team is scoring in nearly every game because we have very fast players up front and good mid fielders to deliver the accurate passes.”
