– Guyanese club eyes Caribbean Club Championship quarter-finals berth
GUYANA’s Fruta Conquerors Football Club will be aiming to get a convincing win over Cuban side Santiago de Cuba when the two sides meet today in their final ‘Group A’ game in the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football’s (CONCACAF) 2019 Caribbean Club Shield in Curacao.
The Tucville-based side opened the tournament with a 2 – 0 defeat to Scholars International at the Ergilio Hato Stadium but then rebounded to put in a creditable performance against Jong Holland where they should have won, but had to settle for a scoreless draw to secure a point.
Given the fact that they’re positioned last on the four-team table with a -2 goal difference and on one point from their draw against Jong Holland, Fruta Conquerors will certainly be given the task to score nothing less than three goals and not concede any, and hope that results from the other Group A game works in their favour.
Fruta Conquerors, the GFF Elite League ‘champs’, is the lone Guyanese club at the tournament which will conclude on April 15 and features clubs from 13 different Caribbean Associations.
Through this competition, the participating clubs continue working with CONCACAF towards a long-term vision to professionalise the club game across the region.
After round-robin play, each group’s winners and runners-up will advance to the quarter-finals. The quarter-final winners will automatically qualify to the semi-finals. The two finalists will contest the final on Monday, April 15, 2019. The complete schedule will be released in the coming months.
The winners of the 2019 CONCACAF Caribbean Shield, provided that said team fulfil the CONCACAF Regional Club Licensing criteria, will have the opportunity to face the fourth-placed finishers of the 2019 Flow CONCACAF Caribbean Club Championship in a play-off match to determine the fourth Caribbean representative in the 2019 Scotiabank CONCACAF League.
In the inaugural edition of the CONCACAF Caribbean Club Shield, Club Franciscain of Martinique were crowned champions with a 2-1 victory over Suriname’s Inter Moengotapoe.
The Martinique club continued its outstanding 2018 international season by edging Trinidad and Tobago’s Central FC 2-1 in the Flow Caribbean Club Championship play-off to secure a spot in their first-ever Scotiabank CONCACAF League, where they eventually fell to Nicaraguan side, Walter Ferretti, in penalties.
