Despite being edged out by Nicaragua 2-1 in a League B finals of the 2023 CONCACAF Boys Under-15 Championships, Team Saint Lucia has been highly commended for putting on a remarkable performance during the tournament.
In the finals, Sunday, at the Stadion Rignaal Jean Francisca in Willemstad, Curacao Nicaragua emerged champions of League B after fighting back from 1-nil down to pique two late goals into the Saint Lucian defense.
Prolific striker Shevon Byron was in the spotlight again, scoring Team 758’s lone goal in the match to accumulate a total of six goals from six matches in the tournament.
Nicaragua fought back to put Saint Lucia on the defensive and was rewarded with two goals in the latter stages of the match. A melee in the box resulted in a defense blunder as a Lucian player failed to clear the ball offline, and a Nicaraguan striker lunged out fully stretched to get the ball into the nets, and then followed up with a header scored from a corner kick to pinch ahead.
In the League B Third-Place Match, Martinique defeated Bermuda 7-6 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw.
Jaiyel Jack of Saint Martin won the 2023 Concacaf Boys’ Under-15 Championship Top Scorer Award, presented by Qatar Airways, after finishing as the top scorer in the 2023 Boys’ U15 Championship with nine goals.
Last Friday, Saint Lucia advanced to the finals with a comfortable 2 – 0 victory over Bermuda, with Shevon netting a brace. Team 758 booked their quarter-final spot, last Thursday, with a hard-fought 1 – 0 victory over Barbados and Shevon was the lone scorer.
Following the preliminary round of matches, Saint Lucia emerged as Group leaders with 7 points. In the opening fixture on August, 6 Saint Lucia defeated Bermuda 2 – 0 with goals from Thierry Morille and Adriano Auguste.
In their second game, on August, 7 Team 758 defeated Cayman Islands 5 – 0, with a brace from Shevon Byron and other goals from Keenan Joseph, Thierry Morille, and Justice Germaine. In the final preliminary match, on August, 8 Team 758 was held to a goalless draw by Aruba.
During the tournament, Team Saint Lucia played six matches in eight days, and scored 11 goals while conceding only two, the latter in the finals.
“A remarkable achievement!” is how the Saint Lucia Football Association [SLFA] Inc. spokesperson described Team 758 Under -15 Boys performance over the course of the tournament.
SLFA President Lyndon Cooper was equally pleased with the youngsters’ performance and commended them for putting up a tough challenge, having gone through some intensive training routines in preparation for the tournament.
Though a bit disappointed with the outcome, Youth Development & Sports Minister Kenson Casimir expressed warm and congratulatory sentiments to the youngsters.
“I am indeed encouraged by the fight shown by team Saint Lucia in the CONCACAF Under 15 Football Final,” Minister Casimir wrote on Facebook.
The Gros Islet MP described as ‘commendable’, the local team’s second-place finish at that level.
“We will continue to work with the SLFA and stakeholders to ensure this set of players make it to the next level,” Casimir stated.
“Saint Lucia with a (population of) 185, 000 people …we stood tall, we stood toe-to-toe against a nation of 6.8 million people, as we played against Nicaragua,” declared the sports minister.