Coach Lauds ‘Very Talented Bermuda Squad’
Bermuda made a strong start to their World Cup campaign with a 5-0 win over the Bahamas last night [Mar 25], with goals from Dante Leverock, Nahki Wells, Zeiko Lewis and two from Justin Donawa.
Dante Leverock opened the scoring for Bermuda in the first few minutes, and then Nahki Wells converted a penalty in the 14th minute after Zeiko Lewis was brought down. Lewis then stepped up and scored a goal in the 29th minute to take Bermuda’s lead to 3-0.
Bahamas’ luck did not get any better as they went down to 10 men with Happy Hall receiving a red card, and Justin Donawa sealed the deal by firing in two goal to push Bermuda to a 5-0 victory.
Following the match, Bahamas head coach Dion Godet told Bahamas sports website 10th Year Seniors, “We went out there and tried to play a different brand of football, instead of just knock it over the top, which is a more direct format. We tried to be a bit more indirect in our approach.
“We ran into a very very talented Bermuda squad. They shot the ball well, they held shape and their pace of play was pretty dynamic and they just overwhelmed us.
“We have to find a way to get better. Hopefully we take this as a lesson because we can only go up. We are in Bermuda for the second leg and hopefully we can find some way to control them.”
Highlight video, courtesy of Bahamas’ 10th Year Seniors, showing all of Bermuda’s 5 goals
“I think the major thing we can change is to find a way to finish. We had some opportunities early in the match and we could not put it away. We had a couple opportunities later in the match and we couldn’t put it away.
“They put away more opportunities than they missed and we just simply have to find a way to put it in the back of the net.”
10th Year Seniors also spoke with Bermuda head coach Andrew Bascome who said, “I just told them to go out there, play football and adjust to the humidity.
“Bahamas is always ready and they’re organised. The guys made some pretty good decisions. Once we were in control of the game I just told them to focus defensively and on ball control to keep possession.
“I was very pleased with the goals scored, especially because we struck fast. I was really pleased with Justin being his first international competition and being able to come out and score.”
“I just have to tell them to remain focused because there is another game to play and we don’t want to take them lightly. We would like to come out fast and make it hard to penetrate us defensively.
“We know the Bahamians would bring hard work so we just had to persevere. Keep playing, keep playing and try to ware them down and we were able to do that,” added Mr Bascome.
The players are all now heading to Bermuda, where Berrmuda will play their second match against the Bahamas at 3.00pm on Sunday, March 29th, at the National Sports Center. Tickets for that match are available via www.ptix.bm, or from Freisenbruch Meyer and the BFA Office.
Read the full report on last night’s match here on 10thYearSeniors website.
Go on Justin!