International beach soccer tournament coming to Barbados
This is the experience we were longing for and we will make the best of it.
These are the words of Barbados’ national coach, Chris King, ahead of tonight’s opening of the first ever international beach soccer tournament in Barbados.
Barbados is joined by neighbours Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Guyana as well as the English national team.
According to King, “We were asking for this kind of experience outside of the CONCACAF Championships for a while so this competition is timely. We have never seen Guyana play before but we know about the other Caribbean countries and we have watched England on video, so only Guyana is unknown to us.”
Barbados’ first match is against the Antiguans and the local coach was cautiously optimistic about the likely result. “All I will say is that the boys will give of their best and we are looking for the hometown support.”
Antiguan manager Ferdinand Abrahams said they are looking forward to the weekend “to gauge how the team is playing because we hope to be in the Bahamas for the world championship in May. The game is growing in Antigua and we even have a league so we are expecting big things in the future, but for now our focus is this tournament and later on the CONCACAF playoffs where we will hopefully qualify for the Bahamas.”
Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago will play the first game in what is expected to be a very competitive duel.The Guyana manager Mark Young said he has a young team and four of the players have international experience. “Our expectation is to learn from the rest of the teams, especially England who are more experienced. We are aiming to be a much better squad when we go to the CONCACAF championships.”
The Trinidadians didn’t make it to the media briefing at the Barbados Football Association’s Wildey headquarters, so were unavailable for comment.
England’s coach Terry Bowes said his team is ready for competition “and we are hoping to win our games.The game is not as advanced in England as far as structure is concerned, but we try to practise together as much as possible.Our league is very small, not where we want it to be but we are trying to improve it all the time.”
The English will suit up against Guyana in tonight’s final game at 9.30. A busy night for the Guyanese who are also playing Trinidad in the first encounter.