CUBA—Team St. Maarten won one game of the three they played in the Caribbean Football Union’s Futsal Qualifiers in Cuba. Sunday’s 6-3 loss to Guadeloupe sends the team packing and heading back to the Friendly Island.
“We could have won this game,” said coach Sandro Garcia by phone shortly after Sunday’s loss. “We made a few errors and lost concentration.”
St. Maarten faced hosts Cuba in their first game Friday and lost. Saturday St. Maarten defeated Jamaica.
St. Maarten was in Group 2. Cuba topped Two at 3-0 after also besting Guadeloupe 4-0 and Jamaica 5-1. Guadeloupe was second with three points and sat above St. Maarten, on goal difference going into Sunday’s match. Jamaica is fourth in the group at 0-3.
Curacao tops group One at 3-0. Trinidad & Tobago is second at 2-1 and is followed by Guyana at 1-2 and Antigua at 0-3.
“We can hold our heads high,” said Garcia. “The team impressed everyone that saw us.”
The final is scheduled for Tuesday.
The games are being played at the Sala Polivalente Kid Chocolate complex in Havana. St. Maarten faced team Cuba and approximately 5,000 cheering local fans Friday evening. Cuba scored first but St. Maarten with Herbert Beldman in goal held the hosts for most of the first half. In the closing minutes St. Maarten conceded two goals to go down 3-0. Cuba added two more in the second half for the 5-0 victory.
That score could easily have been much higher if it wasn’t for the heroics of Beldman. “The Cuban papers called Beldman the ‘Player of the Evening,’“ reports Garcia.
St. Maarten bounced back to defeat Jamaica 3-2 on Saturday. Raymond Wolff scored first to give St. Maarten their first lead of the competition. Rick Plunder found the back of the net as well soon after. St. Maarten led 2-0.
But the Friendly Island failed to take a bigger lead, missing a hatful of chances. “We wasted a lot of opportunities,” said Garcia.
Instead, as the first half wound down, Jamaica scored. St. Maarten started the second half up 2-1.
The lead was short lived. Jamaica rallied and tied the match.
It was Wolff that netted the game winner. With 10 seconds left on the game clock Wolff using his left leg lofted the ball up over the keeper’s head and into goal from a near impossible angle.
Curacao defeated Guyana 5-2 Friday, Antigua & Barbuda 5-0 Saturday and advanced by beating Trinidad & Tobago 3-2 on Sunday.
