Cavalier, Harbour View rematch looms
Published:Thursday | November 9, 2023 | 12:12 AMOrane Buchanan/Staff Reporter
FOLLOWING A 3-0 defeat in their first assignment in the Wray and Nephew-sponsored Jamaica Premier League, the Rudolph Speid-coached Cavalier will lock horns with Harbour View in a rescheduled fixture later today at the Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex, with match time set for 3:00 p.m.
According to Speid, the defeat against Montego Bay was due to a plethora of factors, including fatigue, but also applauded the performance of the Neidir Dos Santos-coached team, saying that they simply played better on the day.
“Montego Bay played well, and we didn’t take our chances. It wasn’t one or two players but the majority of the team, so they deserved the win. Also, I think we are a little bit tired, but without making a lot of excuses, we didn’t play well and they played better,” he said.
Today’s fixture will be a rematch of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup semi-final between the pair, following Cavalier’s 5-0 victory across the two-leg affair.
Coach Speid added that with the pair of Kyle Ming and Shaniel Thomas absent on account of national duties with the Reggae Boyz, the assignment will be a little harder to deal with.
“No two games are ever the same, and we’ll have it harder as we’re without Kyle Ming and Shaniel Thomas along with the schoolboys. One of our problems is that we’re short staffed and can’t rotate as much as we like, so we just have to do with what we have,” Speid explained.
Though the season is young, Speid believes it important for his team to get back to winning ways sooner rather than later.
“I think it will be competitive. As you can see, teams that didn’t make the top six last season are already in the top six. Every year, a team drops out of the top six, and we don’t want to be that team, so we need to get back to winning as soon as we can. I think a lot of our players have one eye on the Concacaf championship more than the Premier League, so the focus is varied. But it’s important that we get back to some semblance of order and the position that we are usually in.”
Harbour View will be short-staffed as well, with Shaquiel Bradford, an important cog in the mechanism that saw them make the semi-final of the Caribbean Cup and scoring in his team’s opening JPL encounter against Arnett Gardens, earning his first call up to the national side yesterday.
Harbour View drew 2-2 with Arnett on Monday.