Coach of the Barbados’ senior women’s football team Mario Harte sang high praises for his team after an opening victory in the inaugural Concacaf W Gold Qualifiers last Friday evening at the Barbados Football Association (BFA) Wildey Turf.
The Lady Tridents were confident, comfortable, and clinical versus St Vincent & the Grenadines, and achieved a 5-0 victory, which subsequently earned them top spot in Group C of League B.
Harte said he was pleased with the result, but there was greater delight in the performance, as the ladies produced exactly what was done in practice, and everyone was aware of their roles and responsibilities.
“I think we did what we came here to do, which is win overall”
“Obviously I am very happy with the result, especially seeing a lot of things we would’ve worked on in training coming to light in the actual game, so I’m happy with that.
“I think we would’ve excelled most from the middle to the attacking third, with the combination play, it was well executed, and I thought everyone was on board, knowing when, where and how, and we got the goals to follow.”
Tridents’ midfielder Shanice Stevenson scored the match’s first goal in the 11th minute with a 40-yard freekick and echoed her coach’s sentiments during the post-match interview.
Barbados hat-trick hero Rianna Cyrus.
Stevenson said the ladies were pleased with the performance and even more satisfied to achieve the result in front of a very supportive home crowd.
The Paradise FC playmaker credited the team’s preparation for their commanding performance against their Vincentian counterparts, who she admitted made it difficult in the initial stages of the match.
“I think we did what we came here to do, which is win overall.
We put in a lot of work to get to this point, so the game came easy to us in a sense, but we had to work for it. As you can see in the first half, St Vincent were playing pretty aggressive, but we held our own, we stayed strong”, said Stevenson.
Coach Harte acknowledged the attacking quality of his team, however he explained that there are some critical areas to improve, with the defensive transition being the most outstanding feature.
Coach Mario Harte (left) and midfielder Shanice Stevenson at the post-match press conference of Barbados versus St Vincent & the Grenadines.
“After we do the lovely attacking play, then when we lose the ball, the reaction to stop the play or defend the penetrative pass.
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I think we need to work on that because after a while, it was becoming easy, and everyone was focused on attack, attack, attack, and we switched off sometimes at the back”, Harte said.
Barbados’ next assignment is the Dominican Republic tomorrow at the Estadio Olimpico Felix Sanchez at 7 pm.
A win on the road or even a tie keeps Barbados in a favorable position leading up to their home encounter against group contenders Bermuda in November.
However, Harte said he is taking each game in stride and will cross each bridge at he gets to it.
“Obviously we are taking it one game at a time. We will celebrate tonight and then we will look towards the next game, which is a tougher opponent and then we will plan to suit.
It’s not that we will become complacent.
We will celebrate it and be thankful that we won at home.”