MIAMI, Florida – Kendale Mercury, the Head Coach of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, says booking a spot to the Group Stage of the Concacaf Gold Cup would provide a lift for the people of the country.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has secured a spot in the new Preliminary Round competition of the Gold Cup, a tournament that gives 12 member associations a final shot to book three spots to the group stage of the 16-team showpiece.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has been drawn to face Haiti in the first round of matches on July 3 at the DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Gold Cup Prelims is scheduled to run July 2-6, a week before the kick-off to the Gold Cup group stage. It will feature two rounds, with the 12 participating teams divided into six one-off ties in the first round. The six winners will advance to the second round, with the winners of the three one-off matches qualifying for the Gold Cup
“To be participating in this tournament [Gold Cup Prelims], and even qualifying for the group stage of the Gold Cup, would mean a lot to me, the players, the federation and the people of Saint Vincent,” said Mercury in an exclusive interview with Concacaf.com.
He said his country is motivated to repeat its solitary qualification for the Gold Cup, which was back in 1996.
“We continue to write history and it would be important for us to go back, especially coming off a disappointing Concacaf World Cup Qualifying campaign, so we are really looking forward to this,” Mercury noted. “It will be great for the players to be play in the USA on professional surfaces, having a taste of the whole Gold Cup and being at a tournament of this magnitude. Also, it would be good to have some supporters, as you know it’s a been a while since players have played in front of supporters,” he added. “The players we have are hungry and that’s a plus for us.”
Mercury singled out team veterans Cornelius Stewart and Darren Hamlett as chief protagonists as the team looks to muscle forward to the lofty plains of the Gold Cup.
But standing in the way of his country’s hopes and dreams is a tough Haiti, whose history at the confederation’s glitzy tournament is richer than that of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.
“Our objective is very simple, if we are to get by them [Haiti], we have to score more goals than them, and we will have our own strategy and tactics to achieve that,” said Mercury.
“We do not intend to lose to Haiti, that being said, we are going for all three points, and with three weeks to prepare, we can do it.”
Mercury said the refreshed format of the Gold Cup deserved to be saluted, for it offers hope and keeps dreams alive.
“The format gives you more games, the chances to play teams above you; it serves a good purpose because that’s the only way you can get better. So I think the format works for me,” he stated.
After a frustrating run in the first round of Concacaf World Cup qualifiers for Qatar 2022 in which the team went 1W-0D-3L, the Saint Vincent and Grenadines tactician said the Gold Cup is now the main focus in the short term of the country’s overall development goals, which has a focus on World Cup 2026.
“To be honest, the plan was always to use the World Cup Qualifiers as preparation for the Gold Cup. We were never one of the favorites to go through in our group considering that we had three big Concacaf opponents in Guatemala, Curacao and Cuba,” Mercury said.
In other Frist Round match-ups, Bermuda will face Barbados, Guatemala takes on Guyana, Guadeloupe meets Bahamas, Trinidad and Tobago battles Montserrat, while Cuba will duel with French Guiana.
Twelve nations of Concacaf have already sealed their spots in Gold Cup Groups Stage, with Qatar to participate as a guest team.
