MIAMI, Florida – The 2022 Concacaf Caribbean Shield (CCCS) in Puerto Rico kicks off on Friday with 11 teams in search of the title and a place in the 2022 Scotiabank Concacaf League Play-Off.
Group C will play all of its matches at the Estadio Centroamericano de Mayaguez in Mayaguez, where three teams will be aiming for a berth in the knockout round: Deportivo Nacional of Aruba, Golden Lion FC of Martinique and Inter Moengo Tapoe of Suriname.
There will be plenty of familiarity between Nacional and Inter Moengo Tapoe, as the two teams faced each other twice in the 2018 tournament,
Nacional fell 5-0 to Inter Moengo Tapoe to open the group stage that year, but then defeated USR of Guadeloupe and Weymouth Wales of Barbados to reach the knockout stage. However, another defeat to Inter Moengo Tapoe, 4-0 in the semifinals, sent Nacional to the Third-Place Match where they fell 3-1 to Bonaire’s Real Rincon.
Inter Moengo Tapoe have become a mainstay in the CCCS, reaching the Final of the 2018 tournament before falling 2-1 to Club Franciscain of Martinique.
The club then took part in the expanded 2021 Flow Concacaf Caribbean Club Championship, winning Group A and then defeating Metropolitan of Puerto Rico to reach the Final, where they ultimately succumbed to AS Cavaly of Haiti, 3-0. Still, that performance in the 2021 FCCCC earned the Suriname club a berth in the 2021 Scotiabank Concacaf League.
The 2022 CCCS will mark Golden Lion’s first appearance in the CCCS, but they do have some Concacaf experience in their ranks, namely FW Kevin Parsemain, who starred for Martinique in the 2017 and 2019 Concacaf Gold Cups.
The three teams will play a round-robin, with the first-place team advancing to the semifinals. Depending on the results of the other two groups, the second-place finisher from Group B could also advance to the semifinals.
