FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida – Martinique showed their grit on Tuesday evening with a 2-0 victory over Puerto Rico to advance from the Gold Cup Prelims into the group stage of the tournament.
This will be Martinique’s eighth appearance in the Gold Cup group stage, and their fourth in a row. They will be placed into Group C with Costa Rica, Panama, and El Salvador.
Martinique came out of the gate firing on all cylinders. Even within the first five minutes, Puerto Rico GK Joel Serrano needed to make a pair of quality saves to keep the game scoreless.
The more experienced side looked to take Puerto Rico out of the game early, but just as with Suriname a few days ago, El Huracan Azul was up to the challenge. They survived the initial onslaught unscathed, and grew into the match as the first half wore on.
Puerto Rico’s Gerald Diaz came very close to breaking the deadlock in the 45th minute, with his low shot pushed aside by the fully outstretched fingertips of Martinique GK Yannis Clementia.
After over 140 minutes of shutout football from Puerto Rico at these Prelims, Brighton Labeau finally broke through in the 52nd minute. A nicely placed header past Serrano put Martinique in front 1-0. The goal was Labeau’s second of the tournament.
Puerto Rico very nearly pulled level in 67th minute on a strange play that saw Martinique defender Jonathan Rivierez direct a powerful header towards his own goal, but Clementia made a fine save to prevent disaster. Diaz had a golden chance inside the six-yard box in the 82nd minute, but was unable to make solid contact.
In the end, it was Martinique clinging to survival as Puerto Rico threw everything forward. But their momentum was thwarted after Juan O’Neill’s red card in the 85th minute, reducing El Huracan to 10 men. With Serrano up front on a last-ditch corner kick effort, Kevin Fortune would slot home an empty netter in the 95th minute to secure the win.
