ORLANDO, Florida – St. Lucia had about two hours sleep before hopping a bus to the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex for its opening match in the 2016 CONCACAF U-15 Girls’ Championship against Puerto Rico.

The delegation left the island at 10 a.m. Monday, but didn’t arrive to the hotel until nearly 3:30 a.m. the next day due to travel delays.

Despite ultimately being on the losing end of a 4-1 scoreline, head coach Evastus Augustin was delighted to be competing at the facilities of the world famous Disney properties.

“We’re very pleased to be here and the experience will do us well,” he told CONACAF.com. “We need more exposure like this to get us competitive.

“We’re amazed at the quality of the grounds and the professionalism of the people. This is a fantastic place. It motivates you to achieve. It motivates you to do better than you ever have done.”

After a first half in which it conceded all four of the goals, St. Lucia became increasingly competitive. In fact, with fatigue becoming a distant memory, it pushed forward in numbers and was rewarded with a fine goal by Krysan St. Louis in the 50th minute.

“The girls were exhausted and I think in the first half it showed,” commented Augustin, a former player in the St. Lucian leagues. “There were some concentration lapses. In the second half, we came back and scored, and played better in the rest of the game.”

With the objective of providing players international experience in order to aid in their development, the final results at the CONCACAF competition don’t matter as much as what can be absorbed.

“We’re very happy to be here, it’s a learning experience,” Augustin continued. “We’re at this point in our development and pray that this team stays together and continues to develop as part of these experiences.”

The St. Lucian squad trained together for six months to prepare for its journey to Orlando. Players are scattered throughout the island, so they convene to train two days during the school week and one day on the weekend.

Augustin is looking forward to seeing how his team progresses over the coming days, working in an environment that encourages improvement.

“We can only do better than what we did in the last game,” he finished. “We’ll be rested. We’ll give our best.”