MIAMI, Florida — Another quartet of teams open League B action in the second edition of the Concacaf Nations League on Friday, with Bahamas hosting Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago heading to meet Nicaragua.
Both Bahamas and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines enjoyed plenty of success in the tournament’s inaugural edition, with Bahamas earning promotion from League C with 10 points in a group that also included Bonaire and the British Virgin Islands, while “Vincy Heat” were able to move to the Concacaf Gold Cup qualification round after a second-place finish in Group D of League B.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has the 1-0 upper-hand in the all-time series with the Bahamas, after a Shandel Samuel double helped pace the team to a 3-2 victory at the 2007 Caribbean Cup.
The home team at the Thomas Robinson Stadium in Nassau this weekend will hope to even the series. Lesly St. Fleur, the team’s all-time leading CNL scorer with three goals, leads coach Nesly Jean’s squad. The leading scorer in CNL for Saint Vincent and the Grenadines also has three, with FW Cornelius Stewart leading a group that also got a goal each from Chevel Cunningham, Jahvin Sutherland and Oalex Anderson.
Nicaragua vs. Trinidad and Tobago
Nicaragua manager Marco Antonio Figueroa will oversee his first official match since starting the job when the Azul y Blanco welcome Trinidad and Tobago to the Estadio Nacional de Futbol in Managua. He’ll hope to better a 2W-1D-3L record that was good enough to keep the team in League B, but just shy of a Gold Cup return.
Meanwhile, Angus Eve, Figueroa’s Trinidad and Tobago counterpart, will look to get his group immediately back to League A after being relegated from the top group in 2019-20.
He’s doing so with a roster that once again will be backstopped by GK Marvin Phillip, who made 17 saves in the previous CNL and adds FW Levi Garcia to a list that also includes MF Joevin Jones, whose one goal ties for the CNL lead.
Nicaragua will rely on MF Juan Barrera, who scored five goals in CNL qualification, and FW Carlos Chavarria, who had three goals in the last CNL campaign.
The teams met at the same venue in 2016, splitting a pair of friendlies. Trinidad and Tobago hold an edge in the all-time series with three wins, a loss and a draw.
