Having qualified for the second round in the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Qualifying Competition for CONCACAF, the Bahamas Senior Men’s team that will face Jamaica in that country has been named. BFA Technical Director Neider Dos Santos, and his Technical Team of Stephen Bellot (Assistant Coach)s of the players who will represent the country. Under the direction of Technical Director Neider Dos Santos, and his Technical Staff of Stephen Bellot (Assistant Coach), Kevin Davies (Assistant Coach) and Harvey Mullings (Goalkeeping Coach), the team named is as follows:
Dwayne Whylly
Shari Clarke
Michael Bethel
Lamar Cancino
Dwayne Forbes
Gavin Christie
Happy Hall
Cameron Hepple
Nesley Jean
Demont Mitchell
Denair Mitchell
Justin Sealey
Connor Sheehan
Lesley St. Fleur
Shemord Thompson
Alex Vanderpool
Kyle Williams
Daron Beneby
Damani Horton
The team will be lead by BFA Vice President Bruce Lafleur, who will serve as Head of Delegation and Team Manager. Dr. Jon Bartlett (Physio) and Daria Adderley (Equipment Manager) rounds out the administrative staff that will join the technical staff on the trip to Jamaica.
The team will depart for Kingston on Friday, June 13, 2008. The first match against Jamaica will be at the Jamaica National Stadium in Kingston on Sunday, June 15, 200 at 6:00 pm. The team will then travel to Montego Bay on Monday, June 16, 2008 to prepare for their second match, which will take place at the Trelawny Muti-Purpose Stadium in Trelawny on Wednesday, June 18, 2008. The Bahamas team will then return home on Thursday, June 19, 2008.
Much work has gone into the preparation of the team for the second round of games in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers. The Bahamas last qualified for the second round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in 2000, when, after defeating Anguilla both home and away, the Bahamas faced Haiti in the same series and lost both matches. In 2004, the Bahamas tied and lost to Dominica in qualifying games for the 2006 FIFA World Cup and lost out on the opportunity to face Mexico in the second round. This time around the Bahamas made no such mistake, drawing twice with the British Virgin Islands but advancing on the away goals rule. The team has been hard at work in the training session, and many of the players have participated in matches at senior men and U-23 level in the last 8 months. In fact, the Bahamas U-23 Men’s team defeated Jamaica in Olympic Qualifiers in October of last year 1-0, and many of the players that participated in that match are in the squad for the upcoming games. The Jamaican team will be significantly stronger, however, as many full-time professional players have been called back to the squad for these games. Nonetheless, our boys will get the opportunity to show what they can do, and there will be no greater stage than the second round of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Qualifiers. A very large percentage of football players around the world will never get the opportunity to compete in a FIFA World Cup, which actually started from the opening game of the qualifiers late last year, so these players will have something that will go on their resume that many that others will not, and that is that they participated in the FIFA World Cup.
The team that has been selected to represent the Bahamas in these games is a good one, and one that we feel will represent the country, and themselves, very well. Results from both matches will be posted on the association’s website at www.bahamasfootballassoc.com on the morning following the match days. Best of luck to the team and we wish them the very best in the competition.
