CATHERINE HALL, St James — Montego Bay United (MBU) will go into this evening’s final game of their Caribbean Football Union Club Championships with slim hopes of advancing to the final.
The Jamaica champions are in third place in the four-team group and are aware that even a handsome win against Club Barcelona Atletico in the second game of the double-header tonight may not be good enough.
MBU, on three points, trounced Cayman Island’s Elite Sports Club 5-0 on Friday, on the back of a double from Owayne Gordon, who snapped a goalscoring dry spell in the process.
Only the winners of the group will advance and Grenades FC, who had beaten MBU 3-2 on Wednesday, are tied with Club Barcelona Atletico on four points each after they drew 2-2 on Friday.
A win for joint leaders Grenades FC of Antigua against Elite SC, who are yet to earn a point in their two games, would, however, make the result of the second game unimportant.
If Elite SC do the near impossible and hold Grenades to a point or less, the second game would come down to a winner-takes-all affair.
MBU’s technical advisor Rod Underwood has simplified his approach as his team seeks to overturn their predicament.
“I will go with simple — control what we can control and that’s what we do,” he said.
“I have been here a short time I see signs of what I am asking them to do; it’s not easy for them, but we are moving forward.”
Dino Williams, who has missed double-digit scoring chances in the two games, gave MBU the lead in the 14th minute on Friday after easing past the slow Elite defence and slotting home past goalkeeper Danner Taylor.
The ease with which the MBU team took over the game early promised a flood of goals in the first half, but it never came as they created but wasted chance after chance.
The second goal came on the hour mark, thanks to a comical mix-up between Taylor and his defence, allowing a ball to run to the wide open Ronaldo Rodney who obliged by tapping into an empty goal.
Gordon then took over the game and scored two goals in a three-minute span, beating Taylor with a sublime free kick in the 74th minute, then a powerful header from a cross from Johann Weatherly, who replaced Donovan Carey in the 53rd minute.
Weatherly, as he did in the first game, came off the bench to add speed and width to the MBU team and also got a goal three minutes into time added.
The Jamaica champions are in third place in the four-team group and are aware that even a handsome win against Club Barcelona Atletico in the second game of the double-header tonight may not be good enough.
MBU, on three points, trounced Cayman Island’s Elite Sports Club 5-0 on Friday, on the back of a double from Owayne Gordon, who snapped a goalscoring dry spell in the process.
Only the winners of the group will advance and Grenades FC, who had beaten MBU 3-2 on Wednesday, are tied with Club Barcelona Atletico on four points each after they drew 2-2 on Friday.
A win for joint leaders Grenades FC of Antigua against Elite SC, who are yet to earn a point in their two games, would, however, make the result of the second game unimportant.
If Elite SC do the near impossible and hold Grenades to a point or less, the second game would come down to a winner-takes-all affair.
MBU’s technical advisor Rod Underwood has simplified his approach as his team seeks to overturn their predicament.
“I will go with simple — control what we can control and that’s what we do,” he said.
“I have been here a short time I see signs of what I am asking them to do; it’s not easy for them, but we are moving forward.”
Dino Williams, who has missed double-digit scoring chances in the two games, gave MBU the lead in the 14th minute on Friday after easing past the slow Elite defence and slotting home past goalkeeper Danner Taylor.
The ease with which the MBU team took over the game early promised a flood of goals in the first half, but it never came as they created but wasted chance after chance.
The second goal came on the hour mark, thanks to a comical mix-up between Taylor and his defence, allowing a ball to run to the wide open Ronaldo Rodney who obliged by tapping into an empty goal.
Gordon then took over the game and scored two goals in a three-minute span, beating Taylor with a sublime free kick in the 74th minute, then a powerful header from a cross from Johann Weatherly, who replaced Donovan Carey in the 53rd minute.
Weatherly, as he did in the first game, came off the bench to add speed and width to the MBU team and also got a goal three minutes into time added.