Digicel Pro League champions, Defence Force and runners-up Caledonia AIA will meet at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar on Sunday morning from 9am in a warm-up clash for their respective Caribbean Football Union Club Championship qualifiers this week.
On Friday, Defence Force coach Ross Russell and his team entered in a live-in camp at Chaguaramas. Looking ahead to the match against the Bermudans, Russell said his team was confident of coming away with a positive result.
“We will be away from home and the match is expected to be played on an artificial turf, but as a team we always go out to win our matches and against the Bermudans it will be no different, boasted Russell.
For the trip to Bermuda, Defence Force will be without injured winger Kevon Carter (still recovering from a broken leg) and top striker Devon Jorsling, who left on Sunday to link up with his new team-mates at Orlando City in the USA.
Defence Force is the only club from the English-speaking Caribbean and any Caribbean nation to have won the Concacaf Champions League crown, in 1985, 2-1 on home-and-away aggregate over Honduran club, CD Olimpia.
The “Teteron Boys”, the dominant club in local football during the 1980s and early 90’s along with Trintoc and Police also reached the Concacaf Final in 1987 and 1988 but lost out to Club America of Mexico (3-1) and Olimpia (4-0) respectively, both on aggregate.
In 1986, Trintoc was beaten by Suriname’s SV Transvaal 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 4-4 score at the end of the home-and-away finals while Police was the last local club to reach the final, in 1991 but was beaten by Mexican club, Puebla, 4-1.
While the “Teteron Boys” will be missing out on the Carnival activities this coming weekend as they fine tune their preparations, their rivals are dealing with some problems of their own and Dandy Town are struggling to deal with the financial demands to compete in the CFU Championship.
In fact, the cash-strapped Dandy Town Hornets have been forced to dig deep in their own pockets and due to a lack of funding the Bermuda Football Association (BFA) has agreed to pay $20,000 of the $50,000 costs to have the Premier champions in the competition while other contributions are forthcoming.
Despite their efforts to this point Hornets are still some $25,000 shy of their target, leaving senior club executive Michael Weeks no alternative but to appeal to the community to support what he termed as a “worthy cause”.
“We’ve had a few potluck dinners and are trying to be creative. We’ve raised about $5,000 so far and so we still have some ways to go. But we are optimistic that our community will rally together and help support our cause. And no donation will be too small because the time is upon us, ” said Weeks.
Weeks is keeping his fingers crossed that monies from gate receipts from the first leg match on local soil can be used to help offset costs for Hornets to compete in the regional club championships.
In terms of preparation, Hornets’ 22-member squad has successfully completed mandatory drugs tests in compliance with World Anti Doping Association (WADA) regulations, with players said to be chomping at the bit to mix it up with their Caribbean counterparts.
The winner of the home-and-away clash between Defence Force and Hornets will meet the winner of the first round series between Suriname’s Intermoengotapoe SV and Guyana’s Milerock FC in the second-round beginning April 12-14 for a spot in the final four to be held in T&T.
Caledonia, meanwhile leaves on for St Kitts/Nevis on Wednesday where it faces Newton United a day later before hosting the second-leg carded for March 18-20. Should tournament debutants, Caledonia get past Newton United it will tackle the winner of the tie between, Tempete FC (Haiti) and Bathestate FC (Dominica) in the second round.