Small Caribbean Hope: Antigua & Barbuda

[peterxeno]

Caribbean Hope
A story about the fortunes of tiny island nation Antigua & Barbuda on the international level

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As a small tiny island nation in the eastern Caribbean, Antigua and Barbuda have not enjoyed much success in the football realm. Antigua and Barbuda's best placed finish in an international competition was fourth place in the Caribbean Cup. The small nation of around 86,000 has never qualified for the World Cup, or gotten past the third round in the CONCACAF qualifiers. Antigua and Barbuda sport a recently founded professional team, called Antigua Barracuda FC, which plays its games in the third tier of United States soccer, USL Pro. A small national league is also in place.

Basic Information:

Nicknames: Benna Boys
Confederation: CONCACAF
FIFA Code: ATG
FIFA Ranking: 90
Home Stadium: Sir Vivian Richards Stadium (capacity: 10,000)

Leagues Loaded:
Antigua & Barbuda (Down to 2nd level)
England (Down to Blue Square North/South)
United States (Down to 4th level)

 

[peterxeno]

Breaking News:
"Recently announced today was the sacking of Antigua and Barbuda manager, Tom Curtis, who was recruited overseas from England to lead the national team, and Antigua Barracuda FC, which plays in the USL Pro league. Curtis had only been training both teams for about a year until contract disputes caused Curtis to resign. The fate of Antigua & Barbudan international football is unknown at this time, and nobody is tipped to be the next manager."

A few days later...

"The Antigua & Barbudan FA has announced the signing of young and unknown Greek-American coach Peter Xenopoulos. Xenopoulos is believed to have semi-professional experience. Due to the risk assosciated with the appointment, Xenopoulos was given a one-year contract with the goal of giving Antigua & Barbuda a good run in the second round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers"

 

[peterxeno]

What a swift appointment! Looks like I've got my work cut out for me. Compared to other nations in CONCACAF, Antigua & Barbuda has a less than lethal side, although it seems that we've got a good side to compete against other Caribbean teams! I have already identified some extremely useful players who Antigua & Barbuda would find it very hard to win without.

George Dublin, Central Defender
George is one of the older and experienced players for Antigua & Barbuda. He is a rock in defense and will be very hard to replace.

Marvin McCoy, Right Fullback
Marvin is a young Antiguan, who is lucky enough to play in the English leagues. He has for sure locked down the rightback position for time to come.

Mikele Leigertwood, Defensive Midfielder
Mikele is another experienced Antiguan player who is even luckier to be playing for Championship side Reading. Mikele bosses the midfield and is an excellent anchor man.

Peter Byers, Striker
Peter Byers just seems to find the net everywhere he goes. He has a great goalscoring record and is showing it in the matches we play. He is indispensable to the Antiguan strike force.

Randolph Burton, Central Midfielder
Randolph is a young midfielder who possesses some of the best passing and mental attributes out of all the Antiguan players. Most of the Antiguan attack starts with the creativity of Randolph and without him there would be no link between defense and attack.

 

[peterxeno]

RESULTS:

Saint Martin 1 - 2 Antigua and Barbuda | Josh Parker, Peter Byers | Friendly
Haiti 0 - 2 Antigua and Barbuda | Peter Byers, Akeem Adams | World Cup Qualifiers CONCACAF (2nd Stage) Group 4

Wow! After narrowly escaping defeat at Saint Martin I thought that my job at Antigua and Barbuda would be a difficult one. Not that case as we proved to potential opponents that we are a force to be reckoned with. Against Haiti we played a counter attacking style of play. 4-1-2-2-1 was the formation, with a packed midfield. Haiti were playing very narrow and I decided to use our speedy fullbacks and wingers and stretch out Haiti, opening up room for Peters Byers and Akeem Adams to score some very good goals! Next match: Belize at home.

 

[Iceman362]

good results mate difficult challenge

 

[peterxeno]

Antigua and Barbuda 2 - 0 Belize
Cayman Islands 0 - 2 Antigua and Barbuda
Antigua and Barbuda 1 - 3 Haiti



Mixed bag of results in this update. We managed to keep our winning streak going to four games straight, scoring more than one goal in each as we perfected our style of counter-attacking play. However, the 1 - 3 home loss to Haiti sticks out compared to the rest of the results. In the first half of this fixture we just fell apart. Our weak and uninspired defense let in three goals and we were down by 3 at halftime. Haiti fought back viciously, and in the process scoring one goal and hitting woodwork several times, but it could not save the game. The loss still means Antigua and Barbuda top the qualifying group, however Haiti is within reach only having a 2 point deficit from being level with us. The next two games are AWAY at Belize and HOME to Cayman Islands. Mikele Leigertwood is also unfortunately out for these two matches as he has picked up a yellow card limit. Finding a backup defensive midfielder will be a problem!

On a better note, Antigua and Barbuda is slowly climbing in FIFA rankings! We reached our highest yet!