By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the Antigua and Barbuda senior men’s football team, Mikele Leigertwood, is wary of their strengths and weaknesses heading into this weekend’s Concacaf Nations League where they will host Group C here at the football association’s Technical Center.
However, during an interview on the Good Morning Jojo sports show, Leigertwood expressed confidence in the team’s ability to do well, given the camaraderie amongst the players.
“Biggest challenge is probably going to be maybe our fitness, I think, just due to the fact that we haven’t played too much football in recent months, but our biggest asset is that everybody wants to do well … you look at our team bonding at this moment, having that core group together and everybody singing from the same hymn sheet, you can’t beat that and that’s almost an extra two players on the pitch and if we’ve got that then we have everybody working for each other,” he said.
The Antigua and Barbuda Benna Boys open their campaign against Dominica on Saturday at 4 pm before facing Bermuda on September 10 at 4 pm. In Saturday’s other contest, Bermuda take on the Dominican Republic at 11 am while, on September 10, Dominican Republic and Dominica clash at 11 am.
The England-based coach said there are no easy matches in the competition.
“We play Dominica on Saturday and they are going to be a tough outfit. In one of their last games they got beaten quite severely by Guatemala but they put up a tough fight against Jamaica so we know it’s going to be tough. Physically. they are going to be able and we’ve played Bermuda in the previous World Cup games which, I thought, we held our own pretty much. So they are both going to be challenging for different reasons but we can’t look too far past,” Leigertwood said.
Meanwhile, one member of the FA’s media team Troy Gibson, said tickets will go on sale from Friday at the body’s head office on the Sir Sydney Walling Highway while telling patrons that some stringent rules will be applied on match days.
“We just put up a proper football stand at the new field, so when patrons come to the new field this weekend they will have proper seats that will be covered as well. Also a reminder that there will be no smoking at the venue of any kind. Concacaf prohibits any kind of smoking in the stands so they would have to be removed from the stands,” he said.
Tickets cost $20 per adult and $10 for children 12 years and under.
Squad: Goalkeepers; Zaieem Scott, Shahoi Dorsett, Jayden Martin; Defenders: Zaire Scott, Cardel Roberts, Tyrique Tonge, Vashami Allen, Kieron Richards, Antonio Morgan; Midfielders: Sean Tomlinson, Kenduka Challenger, Quinton Griffith, Tyrik Hughes, Kwame Kirby, Darryl Massicot; Forwards: Javorn Stevens, Keon Green, D’Andre Bishop, Raheem Deterville, Eugene Kirwan and Eroy Gonsalves.
