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Forward Eliphane Cadet the man to watch for Haiti

Trinidadexpress.com

Thursday, January 11th 2007

Trinidad and Tobago will have to pay special attention to the heading ability of Haitian centre forward Eliphane Cadet when the teams meet next Wednesday in T&T's third preliminary match at the Digicel Caribbean Cup Finals which kicks off tomorrow with a double-header at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.

Cadet's heading ability was most prominent in the two-leg qualifying series against Bermuda when he scored the opening goal in their 2-0 victory on Sunday at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium.

Cadet again repeated the feat in the second game on Tuesday night at the Ato Boldon Stadium which the Haitians won by a 3-0 margin and so finished as 5-0 aggregate winners of their two-leg series against Bermuda.

On Tuesday, Cadet rose in the centre of the penalty area to plant a powerful header past Bermudan keeper Nigel Burgess for his team's opening goal in the 25th minute.

His teammate Baptiste Fritzon had worked his way up the right and hit over a cross which Burgess flicked expertly away from the Bermudan keeper.

Later, Fritzon missed a few good chance to score, including a shot straight to goalkeeper Burgess from six metres out, after he had collected a clever short pass from Cadet.

Haiti have a very strong defence, marshalled at the centre by their strongman Pierre Bruny, a former Joe Public player.

They were never threatened by Bermuda, except on the one occasion when Khano Smith hit a free-kick off the Haitian crossbar .

The Haitians doubled their tally in the 64th minute when midfielder Alexander Boucicant capitalised on a defensive mix-up, by chipping the loose ball over keeper Burgess. As in the first game against Bermuda, Haiti took over late in the match, but once again their finishing eluded them.

Bermuda had a chance to at least score the goal when awarded an 88th minute penalty but keeper Gabard Fenelon saved Shaki Crockwell's spot-kick.

Finally, in time added on, Cadet got his second goal of the match when he received a short pass in the area and slipped the ball past keeper Burgess.