Action between St. Martin selection and St. Kitts and Nevis on Sunday in Anguilla (Photo Roger Masip).
MARIGOT—Sunday in Anguilla will be a day the St. Martin senior selection will want to erase from memory as quickly as possible after the team suffered a humiliating defeat by St. Kitts and Nevis losing 10-0.
The St. Martin team met St. Kitts and Nevis on the second day of the League of Nations for the CONCACAF area. As no football field is approved in St. Martin, the qualifying match for the 2019 Gold Cup took place in Anguilla, at the Raymond E. Guichard Stadium.
The match took place on wet ground following Saturday's storms, but CONCACAF officials found the ground suitable for the match. From the very beginning of the match, the St. Martin team faced difficulties against technically more experienced opponents.
From the 5th minute, St. Martin keeper David Saintil could not stop a shot on goal by the St. Kitts attackers. The ball crossed the home goal line again 12 minutes later despite players' complaints for an offside. Three minutes later, defender Brice Noubou scored against his own side. The St. Martin players seemed somewhat confused and clumsy in the face of their opponents who were constantly attacking.
The rest of the first half saw a series of goals in the 25th, 29th and finally in the 38th minute. However, Saintil prevented the score from getting even worse by stopping a penalty kick from his counterpart in the 36th minute.
After the break, the St Martin team seemed more motivated and made in-roads into the defence of St Kitts and Nevis on several occasions; attacks that rarely broke through the defence and shots that failed to find their way to the back of the net. Despite this renewed combativeness, St. Kitts and Nevis scored a flurry of goals in the 53rd, 66th, 79th and 92nd minutes.
St. Martin's team coach David Baltase said he was very disappointed, not only in the result, but also in the way it was done. "We got a big slap in the face today", Baltase said. “It's very difficult to get up to speed with a team that has professional players, while St. Martin operates on an amateur level.
The coach of St. Kitts and Nevis, Jacques Passy, viewed the match as "honourable" and that the score was fair. “Fair, not because we were facing a bad team, but because we were very good.”
For Passy, his team is determined to go to the Gold Cup. He congratulated the St. Martin team who did not give up “from the first to the last minute".
The St. Martin team were comprised of: David Saintil, Jason Maccow, Elvis Fleming, Brice Noubou, Emmanuel Richardson, François Milcet, Wrubens Dupalus, Mathieu Stoebner, Yannick Bellechasse (Captain), Jonathan Nyuiadzi, Youri Charbonnier.
