The Barbados senior football team redeemed themselves from their opening defeat of the Bradley Football Festival with a spirited and combative 0-0 draw against St Vincent and the Grenadines last Friday at the National Stadium.
The previous encounter between the two teams, less than a year ago in Kingstown, produced a goalless draw which sent Barbados out of the Digicel Caribbean Cup.
On Friday, St Vincent settled quickly and relied on the counter-attack strategy, utilizing the pace of front men Myron Samuels and Wilson Joseph.
Samuels was a live wire with his good ball-handling skills and deceptive pace. Joseph, the smaller of the two, was busy around the box with his off-the-ball runs, creating space for attacking midfielder Wavel Cuffy to come forward and link with his forwards.
Barbados settled after 15 minutes and dealt with the threats quite comfortably. Jason Lovell had an outstanding game at the centre of defence, displaying no nerves and deserving of the Player Of The Match award.
Maradona Lavine showed a significant improvement on his lethargic performance on Wednesday. He used his pace and dribbling ability to good effect on several occassions and was unfortunate not to score.
The highlight of the game came late in the first half when Samuels shook off his marker and unleashed a “wicked” 25-yard left-foot drive that drew a fantastic save from Barbados goalkeeper Jason Boxhill.
The second half was a lot more favourable for the home team but countless crosses went a-begging and they seldom looked like breaking the deadlock.
In the opening match, Guyana came from behind to defeat Bradley University 2-1.
Bradley opened the scoring in the 22nd minute courtesy skipper Bryan Gaul but Sheldon Holderan equalized on the stroke of half-time.
Colin Welson snatched victory for the Guyaneese in the 77th minute with a spectacular free-kick into the far corner. (RG)
