National U-15 footballers head for CFU Championships
The Under-15 National Boys Football Team in training
(CNS): The Cayman Islands Under-15 National Boys Football Team will be competing in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Championships taking place in St. Maarten and Anguilla from 8-16 August. With the traditional CONCACAF Under-15 Championships postponed this year, the CFU has organised a scaled-down version of the competition with 12 countries participating.
The countries are divided into Group 1: Anguilla, Cayman Islands, St. Lucia and the US Virgin Islands; Group 2: Bonaire, Dominican Republic, Grenada and St. Kitts & Nevis; and Group 3: Antigua & Barbuda, Curacao, St. Maarten and St. Vincent & The Grenadines.
Countries in Group 1 will play their games in Anguilla while Group 2 and Group 3 teams will be stationed in St. Maarten.
The Cayman contingent will begin the competition against St. Lucia on Saturday, 8 August and will face the US Virgin Islands the following day. Cayman’s final group game will be against host country Anguilla on Monday, 10 August.
The top two countries from each group will advance to the quarterfinals scheduled for Wednesday, 12 August, with the semifinals set for Friday, 14 August and the championship game to be played on Sunday, 16 August.
The quarterfinals, semifinals and championship games will be played in St. Maarten.
Though they only had two weeks to prepare, due to the very short notice given by the CFU, the staff of Ernie “Gillie” Seymour (head coach), Antwan Seymour (assistant coach and team manager) and Bruce Sigsworth (assistant coach), is confident the local boys will be competitive and do themselves and their country proud.
The majority of this squad has been training and playing together for the last four years and have competed in a number of local and overseas tournaments in preparation for occasions such as this.
Commenting on the tournament, CIFA interim president Bruce Blake said, “With the postponement of the CONCACAF Boys’ Under-15 Championships, we were committed to finding a tournament for our Under-15 National Team to compete. We are pleased that the CFU stepped in to organise a Caribbean version of the Under-15 Championships.
“I am most grateful to Martin Cooke, Ernie Seymour, Antwan Seymour and Bruce Sigsworth for pulling everything together on such short notice. I wish the team all the best.”
Participating in this competition should prove an excellent opportunity for the coaching staff and players to gauge their performance against other Caribbean teams as they prepare for the CFU Under-17 World Cup Playoffs, scheduled for July/August 2016.
The squad of 18 players leaves for St. Maarten on Thursday, 6 August.
