The Men’s National Team will be facing Cuba at 5.30pm (BVI time) today in a CONCACAF World Cup Qualifier at the Estadio Doroteo Guamuch Flores in Guatemala.
The team has been in Guatemala preparing for the game and acclimatizing to the altitude for a few days under the watchful eyes of Coaches Dan Neville and John Reilly as well as Levy James, the team masseur.
“It’s obviously an exceedingly difficult game for us and outside of the four walls of our dressing room no one is expecting much, but we are confidant. “Commented Neville “we have prepared well and don’t have the full squad available, but that creates opportunities for others and with the upcoming game against Curacao, we will have to rotate the players”.
One such opportunity for a debut falls at the feet of Denvin Jones who has been involved with National Age Group squads before but is making his debut at senior level “I’ve known Jones since 2017 as a 13-year-old and he knows the expectations and had a really good tour recently in the Turks and Caicos, so I’m looking forward to seeing him play”.
The game is behind closed doors due to COVID-19, but Neville is urging fans to do what they can to support the team “we had a great following for our games in Curacao and although we can’t promise results due to the magnitude of the games, but we do promise intensity, work rate and huge amounts of national pride”.
The team will once again be led by Kristian Javier who was philosophical about the task ahead “these games play a pivotal role in our development process, and I have seen great improvement both on and off the field. We have embraced the hard work, know how to stay positive and embrace all that it means to represent our country on the world stage. Each player has their own attributes and once we keep building, stay together and follow through on our tactical plans then we can get the results we are looking for”.
The game is not being televised but efforts are being made to have it streamed via social media and the FA will be sending out information on how to watch as soon as its available.
The full squad is Javier (capt), Phillip Graham, Will Butler, Giovanni Grant, Miguel Marshall, Jamie Wilson, Josh Bertie, Luka Chalwell, Carlos Septus, T’Sharne Gallimore, Tyler Forbes, Kevin Fisher, Charley McMillan, Justin Smith, Denvin Jones, Luca Reich and Daniel Gilford.
The BVI will also face Curacao on Saturday 5th June with a 4pm kick off local time (6pm BVI time).