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Jamacian Club Harbour View quest begins against Haitian Club Aigle Noir

published: Friday | December 1, 2006

Paul-Andre Walker, Staff Reporter

HARBOUR VIEW'S drive to become the first Jamaican team to win the Caribbean Football Union Club Championships on two occasions begins tonight at the club's Mini-Stadium.

After all the pleasantries passed when Haiti's Aigle Noir, Curacao's SV Centro Social Deportivo Barber and St. Kitts' Positive Vibes arrived in the island yesterday, the teams will get down to the seriousness of qualifying for the next round of the championships.

To get the ball rolling, Barber will play against Positive Vibes at 6:00 p.m. while Harbour View will face what is probably the toughest challenge of the round at 8:00 p.m.

Not much is known about Aigle Noir, however, the Haitian threat is always one that Jamaican teams are well aware of and Harbour View's coach, Lenworth 'Teacher' Hyde Sr. is no different.

"It's not going to be easy as Haiti always have good teams so we can't take anybody for granted. We just have to go out there and play some hard football," said Hyde.

Harbour View will be going into the game with one injury concern. Last night it was still not certain if Ricardo Smith, who has made the left-back position at Harbour View his own, would be fit.

Touch and go

"We have a slight problem with Ricardo at left-back. We are training this evening and it is touch and go with him whether or not he'll be out because any 18 named now cannot be changed for the three games," Hyde explained.

The team will be bolstered though by the return of Gregory 'Bookie' Simpson, who can slip into that position because Robert Scarlett is not in the team.

Despite minor hiccups in selecting the teams, Hyde says the side is confident coming off its end-of-round final win against Waterhouse and Sunday's victory over Naggo Head in the Wray and Nephew National Premier League.

"We are very confident but we don't want to be over-confident. We are going out there to try and win the game because it is the winner of the group that goes through to the next round. So the more wins we have the better for us," said Hyde.

"I think this team (Aigle Noir) is the best of the teams that are here so if we can get full points from this game then it will be good for us," he said.