No margin for error - Portmore, Cavalier backs against Caribbean Cup wall

Former regional champions Cavalier and Jamaica Premier League (JPL) winners Portmore United will both be hunting their first win of the Concacaf Caribbean Cup when they meet in a Group B encounter at the National Stadium this evening, starting at 7 p.m.

After two matches, Cavalier sit on two points following a pair of drawn results, while Portmore are yet to get off the mark after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Dominican Republic club Salcedo in their opening game of the competition.

The Dominican Republic’s Cibao and Salcedo currently lead the group on four points each.

Portmore and Cavalier last met in the JPL final in May, when Portmore prevailed on penalties after a 2-2 draw.

Portmore coach Rodolph Austin, who missed the team’s first Caribbean Cup outing because of his commitments with Jamaica’s national under-20 team, believes his side is in much better shape than it was for that match.

“I think we look much sharper. We are more confident and we are just looking towards this game. We are well prepared for the game,” he said.

Defeat for Portmore would leave their chances of progressing from the group hanging in the balance, but Austin said his team is embracing the pressure of the occasion.

“The pressure is high. We live for this moment. Life is about pressure. Football, likewise. For me, we just need to go out there and apply ourselves in a professional manner and win the game,” he said.

Team captain Ramone Howell added that morale in the camp remains high and believes supporters will have something to cheer about.

“The team spirit is high regardless of who we are playing. We lost the first game, so everyone knows this is a must-win game.

“Everyone is locked in and ready. So just come out and support us. We will give you (fans) something to cheer about.”

Cavalier head coach Rudolph Speid said failure to secure all three points could significantly affect either team’s ambitions in the tournament.

“It is essential for both teams to get a win or that could really set us back big time, behind where we want to go. So it is important (to win),” Speid said.

“But you know how it goes when both teams want a win. The team that is more cautious and play better to instruction and to their game plan will prevail, but it is two evenly matched teams, and so everybody should come out and see the game,” he commented.

Speid pointed out that despite losing his two leading goalscorers from last season, Daryl Masicot and Kimarley Scott, his players remain motivated by their JPL final defeat to the St Catherine club.

“It is a repeat of the Premier League final, but probably this is more important. This one is more of a league game, where points are important for both sides.

“We don’t know anything about Portmore this season. We haven’t seen them. It is possible that they have changed how they play, or maybe they play the same.

“It is the start of the season and I don’t really know what is going to happen; but one thing, we will remember the loss in the final and the boys will be motivated because of that loss,” he said.

Speid acknowledged that replacing the goals lost through the departures of Masicot and Scott remain a challenge.

“We have lost the two strikers who scored the majority of the goals, and it is a big loss for us. Masicot and Scott.

“So we are trying to find that combination that can score goals regularly for us.”

livingston.scott@gleanerjm.com