- Written by LK Hewlett
St. Kitts and Nevis (WINN); The St. Kitts and Nevis national senior men’s football team the Sugar Boyz is presently in Europe preparing for two important matches.
The Sugar Boyz, #89 in the FIFA World Ranking, will face #68-ranked Armenia on Sunday, June 4th, then on Wednesday, June 7th they come up against Georgia. Georgia is ranked #122.
Thrizen Leader of the St. Pauls United football club will captain the 20-member squad for the European tour. Ten of the players are based in the United Kingdom- Romaine Sawyers, Lois Maynard, Jason St Juste, Jacob Hazel, Harrison Panayiotou, Michael Nottingham, Omari Sterling, Theo Wharton, Nathan Lescott, and Zephaniah Thomas.
Raheem Somersall is based in the USA, Gerard Williams in Trinidad, Justin Springer in Canada and Tishan Hanley in the Philippines.
The locally based players are Jamal Jeffers of the St. Paul's United FC, Errol O'loughlin of the Conaree FC, Carlos Bertie from the Cayon FC, and Kimaree Rogers and G'Vaune Amory of the Village Superstars.
The coaching staff is led by Head Coach Jacques Passy, and he is accompanied by Assistant Coach Jeffrey Hazel, Team Manager Keithly Pemberton, and other supporting staff.
Team Manager Pemberton spoke to WINN FM from Armenia on Thursday night (June 2). He said the team was settling in and awaiting the arrival of some of the players from St. Kitts who had been delayed.
“The rest of the team is in training and they are expecting a tough battle versus Armenia and Georgia because they are not easy teams. Georgia beat Spain last year, in Spain; I think that’s the first team to beat Spain at home in five years.
“The guys have assured me however that they’re up for the challenge so we’re asking that the whole of St. Kitts and Nevis be behind us for these two games.”
SKNFA President Anthony Johnson said the FA continues to invest in the development of football in the federation, and sending the national team to Europe was costly, but worthwhile.
“That comes at a great cost to the Association but we believe it is important to expose our players not just to the traditional Caribbean or CONCACAF environment but different environments that perhaps are more challenging, and so we are very pleased that our national team will be undertaking this tour of Europe.”
The two matches will be played at 12 midday local time and will be streamed lived via the following:
http://www.timesoccer.com/video/armenia-vs-st-kitts-nevis-live-streaming-highlights.html