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By Panoramix Oct 13, 2003, 10:37

The Dominican Republic team showed some back bone, sporadicaly through out the game. But this match was clearly dominated by the Haitian team. The Haitian U-23 showed great burst of speed and ball control on both offense and defense. Haiti needs to improve on their finishing touches on offense. Haiti did the necessary, to move on to the next phase where they will face Honduras, but they were not truly tested by the Dominican team.

Haiti's weaknesses became apparent in the last 20 minutes off the game, where although reduced to 10 men due to a red card, they had a few golden scoring opportunities that they did not capitalized. Also many counter attack opportunities were not exploited in the last few minutes of the game. On one occasion, Haiti had the opportunity for a clear one-on-one match up between a fast Haitian forward and a Dominican Defender, the Haitian midfielder chose to clear the ball, mental error. The real test for the Haitian U-23 team will be against the more experienced USA team, on Wednesday in Fort-Lauderdale.

The real victory was for Haitian football in general, overall playing the game in Miami, instead of Port-au-Prince was a success. This Haitian U-23 generation of players has a lot of potentials and the key to Haitian football success is a sustained effort in soccer development. The strategy of marketing Haitian Football to the Haitian diaspora, at first glance, appears to be the fuel that will help keep this sustained effort. About 30,000 people, 95% Haitian, energized by two Haitian " Ban apie" (marching bang) were in attendace for this game. There is a market for Haitian footbal in the Haitian diaspora. This market has a stronger buying power than the Haitian market, accentuated by the devaluation of the Haitian gourdes over the past three years.

The Haitian diaspora Market is also more attractive to the potential sponsors for Haitian football. So far Air d'Haiti, Focus Group are the main sponsors of the U-23 team, Bobby Express recently joined the group. Also, promoters of the Miami 2004 Music Festival are pledging a $2.00 per ticket contribution to the Haitian selection. Thus, there are promising relationships that could be forge, as a result of the Haitian Diaspora's support for their national selection. It's in the best interest of Haitian Football that they market their services to the Haitian Diaspora.