Ready and waiting
Cavalier up for second-leg Caribbean Cup semi-final
Published:Wednesday | October 30, 2024 | 12:14 AMGregory Bryce/Staff Reporter
WITH JUST 90 minutes separating them from successive qualification to the Concacaf Champions Cup, Cavalier SC head coach Rudolph Speid says his players are ready to take on Moca FC in the semi-final return leg of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup at the National Stadium today.
Cavalier played out a tense scoreless draw against Moca during the first leg of the tie in the Dominican Republic on Thursday.
Speid said, with their next encounter being played on home soil, his players are ready to get the job done and secure their spot in the Caribbean Cup final, as well as the Champions Cup.
“The team is motivated,” the Cavalier boss said in his pre-match interview. “We’re always upbeat and confident. This team is not a stranger to us anymore but, of course, they might change tactics. But it doesn’t matter to us.”
He added, “Usually we’re consistent at home but this game is a knock-out game, so somebody has to win. It is not a game where a point is okay, either Moca or ourselves will have to get through.”
Moca advantage
However, Cavalier are wary of their position, having not scored away to Moca. Concacaf still maintains the away-goal rule.
With Cavalier failing to score in their away fixture, any goal scored by Moca could see the home team under added pressure to secure their passage to the next round of the competition.
Speid said, despite playing with home support, the away goal rule means it will be Moca who enters the fixture with the advantage.
“I don’t think it’s an advantage for us, because the away goal rule is in effect and we didn’t score one goal away. So, if they score one, we’ll have to score two. So I’m not really pleased and we don’t have an advantage at this point,” he explained.
“Moca is a good team and you can see they have a lot of structure. They have players from Argentina and from all over South America, so they are not an easy team. Those players are well versed in the art of playing, so we have to give them a lot of respect.”
Cavalier will be hoping for an improved performance in front of goal this time around, as they saw several key opportunities going to waste during the first leg of the tie.
Speid had blamed the poor conditions of the field for his team’s underperformance in front of goal, which he said was his main cause for concern.
“It was concerning because we missed chances, but then again, the circumstances were very difficult,” he said.
“The pitch was waterlogged, the ball wasn’t moving smoothly – it was stopping in some instances – and we didn’t get our usual game going. It was still concerning because we did get some chances that normally we’d put away.”
The match is set to kick off at 7 p.m. at the National Stadium.