Barbados National Football Team Braces for Crucial Second Leg Clash After First CONCACAF Nations League Play-In Defeat

Barbados National Football Head Coach Kent Hall believes his squad is ready to make amends in the second leg after suffering a 4-1 home defeat to Guyana in the first CONCACAF Nations League Play-In match on Friday at the Wildey Turf.

The Tridents will need to overturn that three-goal deficit at the National Track and Field Centre in Guyana to secure a place in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup Preliminaries, which are slated for early next year.

Buoyed by the return of star player Thierry Gale, the hosts went one-nil up on Friday thanks to in-form forward Niall Reid-Stephen in the 17th minute. The jubilation didn’t last long as the Golden Jaguars struck back nine minutes later through Omari Glasgow. He scored one more in the second half before Osaze De Rosario and Enoch George added insult to injury for the Tridents.

“The guys have responded really well to the situation and are eager to take to the pitch and improve on the performance from the first leg,” Hall said. “We feel like the scoreline didn’t really tell an accurate story of the match or paint a fair picture of the team, so we’re going to change that. We’ve done a quick analysis of the match, and we’re going to see how much we can get done in the training session this evening. Tomorrow, we approach the match like a new fixture – one goal at a time – and if we execute well enough to give ourselves a chance at progression, then we will 100 percent go for it.”

Hall, who is also the interim Technical Director, made a change to the squad picked for the first leg. Goalkeeper Nashton Browne, who plays for Paradise FC, has been called up to replace Corey Bridgeman, who picked up an ankle injury in the last match. (JC)

The squad is as follows:

Goalkeepers: Jireh Malcolm (Paradise F.C.), Nashton Browne (Paradise F.C.)

Defenders: Andre Applewhaite (Captain) (Weymouth Wales F.C.), Carl Hinkson (Kickstart Rush F.C.), Jayden Goodridge (Red and White Shottas), Mario Williams (Weymouth Wales F.C.), Nathan Walters-Harewood (Altitude F.C., Canada), Nicoli Brathwaite (Kickstart Rush F.C.), Ricardio Morris (Weymouth Wales F.C.)

Midfielders: Ethan Taylor (Kickstart Rush F.C.), Hadan Holligan (Weymouth Wales F.C.), Jaylan Gilkes (Barbados Soccer Academy), Jaron Oughterson (UWI Blackbirds), Kevon Lucas (Kickstart Rush F.C.), Omani Leacock (Wotton F.C.), Sheran Hoyte (Britton’s Hill United F.C.)

Forwards: Ackeel Applewhaite (Weymouth Wales F.C.), Darian King (Wotton F.C.), Khalil Vanderpool-Nurse (Harnosand F.C., Sweden), Nadre Butcher (Weymouth Wales F.C.), Niall Reid-Stephen (UWI Blackbirds), Thierry Gale (SK Rapid Wien, Austria)