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| Dominican Republic CAribbean Cup 2011 DR |
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| Dominican Republic stadium in San Cristoba |
Anguilla is another British overseas territory but is a full CONCACAF member. Anguilla is at the top of the Caribbean chain of islands, East of Puerto Rico. There are only about 14,000 inhabitants on this tiny tropical island. This is the second least in population in the Caribbean. Their coach is Scott Cooper who is a native Anguillan. Anguilla usually calls upon players from the English semi-professional (barroom league-weekend warriors) teams. Particularly the Sloth town area of England has players that have some type of birth connection to Anguilla. FIFA does not list a pro league of any kind. My guess they will no be any good.
Dominican Republic splits the island of Hispaniola with Haiti. Dominican Republic has slightly over 10 Million in the population. Only Cuba has a bigger population. Dominican Republic also has more people than all the Central American Nations (except Guatemala). Most Dominicans are poor with an average GDP per capita of $5,228 per year. This is a very poor country. Baseball dominates the sports world there The Dominican Republic is the nation I see with the most potential with in CONCACAF.. However with a population over 10 Million it is easy to find footballers. They have a pro league consisting of 8 Clubs. The Dominican Republic was one of the first Caribbean nations to benefit from the goal program. FIFA funded a headquarters and playing pitch in the country’s second largest city San Cristobal – a 15-minute drive from the capital Santo Domingo. This is where the Dominican Republic hosted the Caribbean Cup 2011 qualifying games. The stadium only holds 2,800 but is a newer stadium built in 2003. This is where I expect the Dominican to play their World Cup Qualifier games. Their coach is Cuban Clemente Hernandez who took over in 2010. Their star players are 2 attacking FW. Jonathan Fana at age 24, plays for the Puerto Rico Islanders. He is fast and has a nose for the goal. FW Daryl Batista is only 22 years He scored 5 goals in the Caribbean Cub qualifying game against the British Virgin Islands. They outplayed Dominica however it was Dominica that won the Caribbean Cup game 1-0. The Dominican Republic also has a number of young talents in European youth programs.
Look for the Dominican Republic to dominate this series, scoring multiple times. They have the players and the talent to crush Anguilla. The big question is how many fans will attend this preliminary game in Dominican Republic.
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| Dominican Start Player Jonathan Fana (Puerto Rico Islanders) |
5 comments:
Ha ha. The town is Slough. That came to my attention somehow a while back.
The fact they took the RESERVE TEAM manager of Maidenhead United (the club is in the 6th tier of English football) as their national team coach back in 2008 pretty much tells you all you need to know. Probably explains why El Salvador obliterated them. You csn search youtube for that match. You can also search Puerto Rico Anguilla too for the Caribbean Cup qualifier.
There's something fascinating about a bunch of unknown guys from teams I've never heard of many leagues down the English pyramid system jetting off halfway round the globe to play World Cup qualifiers.
If Dominican Republic can't win this there's no hope for them. Forget the over 10 million population. India have over a billion, and what have they ever done? Anguilla are one of the weakest national teams on the planet. Personally I would estimate them as 3rd weakest ahead of Montserrat and American Samoa.
If Anguilla are drawing players from the lower, lower leagues of England I at least expect to see some drive and fight out of Anguilla. Dominican Republic are a dire team, but they should still have more than enough to win this. I wouldn't be surprised if the score was respectable though.
How do you know Dominican Republic outplayed Dominica? It's not a fair comparison anyway though with Dominican Republic having played that match at home.
What they did to the BVI suggests they could unload on Anguilla, but the BVI's pathetic display is unheard of even in CONCACAF, so I'm not reading much into it. Instead I look at Anguilla's Caribbean Cup results, where they didn't get destroyed, losing 3-1 to Puerto Rico and 4-1 to Cayman Islands and they beat Saint Martin 2-1.
Well, I thought I'd have the least to say about this one, but it looks like I had the most.
http://dcc.digicelfutbol.com/en/news/32
No I did not see the game however the stats indicate that the Dominican Republic had (13) more than twice as many as Dominica (5). Also DR had more than 3 times as many corner kicks.
Nice point about India (lol) they could be good if they......?
The Dominican FA has been pure chaos for years. The FA hasn't even been able to secure CONCACAF-approved stadium for over 5 years, despite having hosted the Pan-American Games in 2003 and having the 20,000+ seater Felix Sanchez Stadium in the capital (not to mention plenty of good 15,000+ baseball stadiums that could be fitted for use). Having lived in Santo Domingo for two World Cup cycles, there is absolutely no media coverage on these matches. People don't know when, where and why of these matches, so the people that go are inevitably immediate acquaintances of the team, plus some hard-core aficionados.
The problem hasn't been producing talent. There is a) plenty of local talent practicing the sport (some from Haitian migrants) in the provinces, and b) the Dominican diaspora in USA and Europe has certainly produced some decent talents (plenty of Dominicans in Spanish canteras, even one young 16 year old Carlos Martinez in the fourth-tier Barcelona squad). This second one includes plenty of Dominican diaspora who train in US colleges and clubs. Not great, to be fair, but that talent production should still put the country in the top 5 in the Caribbean.
The problem, instead, has been a shambles of an FA that doesn't know how to handle and gather good athletes from the eligible pool and make a team. One recent Dominican footballer that plays for a USL side agreed to be called up only on two conditions: the FA would pay for their transport (which any FA should be doing anyway) and that they promise to hold practice/training EVERY DAY, because his last call-up was a disorganized mess that saw professional athletes prepare for a match like a bunch of toddlers. No warm-ups, no clear strategy, no training camp.
The FA has also been accused of embezzling FIFA GOAL project funds, though no proof exists... We held elections in January, where there was a major candidate (popular amongst the local academies and clubs who are the real grassroots of Dominican soccer) who was declared ineligible by the incumbent administration a few days before the election, much to his protest.
Just letting you know what the deal is down there. The clubs and academies have been visibly frustrated with our FA for years. The government, even, would like to "kick the bums out", but just want to avoid the wrath of FIFA.
More info in Spanish here:
http://www.balompiedominicano.com/
@ Jochi
I remember you, Jochi. You were on here commenting about Dominican Republic before. I guess it's nice to know the country can still produce talent. But not nice to know they have to get out of the Dominican Republic in order to develop it. But this FA of yours must be extremely frustrating if not outright distressing as a football fan. I always thought football must just be a dead sport in the Dominican Republic. It's a shame that potential is being held back. Cantrera. New word for me.
What could FIFA do to the Dominican Republic though? Suspend them? It really would make almost no difference, Dominican Republic achieves nothing at senior level, and doesn't seem to even enter youth teams into competitions. Dominican Republic football clubs are not going to be doing anything in the Caribbean Championship any time soon I don't think, much less the CONCACAF Champions League. Now, if FIFA can fine the Dominican Republic, that's different when the country is poor, but if suspension is the worst they can do, I say take the hit. If that's what it takes, take the hit, and clear out the garbage. Stop paying money to worthless good for nothing trash. Put a new FA in place and with a new and better FA in place surely FIFA should lift the suspension.
Anguilla?? wow call me ignorant, but I have never heard of this country and less about national soccer team, I can bet Dominican Republic won that match
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