FRISCO, Texas.- The group stage ended a frustrating Gold Cup tournament for both Caribbean teams in Group B, Haiti and Martinique. The United States and Canada march on to the elimination rounds, but the island squads will return home and reassess.
For Haiti, winning their final match in Gold Cup 2021, against Martinique, 2-1, provided a small measure of redemption after many difficulties faced by the players, including a number of player absences with only a few reserves available for the finale against Les Matinino.
“It’s very positive for this group (to get this win), and for those we lost on the team due to Covid and for our country as well,” said Haiti Head Coach Jean-Jacques Pierre after the match. “It makes us happy, even if we’re eliminated. We had three games - we probably played our worst game today, but we won.”
Pierre was clearly proud of his players, who went the entire distance of the match in arduous heat conditions, without any subs as options. “We won with fight, we won with heart,” Pierre said, giving credit to his players. “They knew what we had to do to manage the game.”
For Martinique, the Haiti loss was bittersweet, since despite the loss, Kevin Fortune scored the historic 1,000th goal in the tournament.
“It’s good for Concacaf and the Gold Cup,” Martinique Head Coach Mario Bocaly said. He was clearly frustrated by the lack of preparation imposed upon his squad due to the pandemic.
“This is a competition of a high level and we simply didn’t have enough time to prepare,” Bocaly said. “With the pandemic, we couldn’t schedule friendly matches or anything. It was impossible for us against teams that were able to do that.”
With the valuable experience of the 2021 Gold Cup now under their belts, both Caribbean sides will look forward to the start of the next Concacaf Nations League in 2022.
