Barbados Stuns Dominica 7–0 in WIFA Women’s Championship

Dominica’s senior women’s team faced a difficult challenge at Victoria Park in St. Vincent, where Barbados delivered an admirable performance to claim a 7–0 win in the WIFA Women’s Championship. Despite moments of grit and resistance from the Nature Isle Ladies, Barbados capitalized on their chances and controlled the tempo of

the match from start to finish, leaving Dominica with an 0-3 record in the tournament at the end of the preliminary round.

Coach Ronnie Gustave says a lack of chemistry and cohesion played a critical role in the

outcome of the matches but notes there was marked improvement and obvious potential. Well, I still have to say, I can't put too much pressure on the girls. Because in a very short space of time, bringing a team together that does not have chemistry. And you know in football, chemistry is a lot. So try to find the girls and put them in position where we can get that kind of togetherness on the pitch. You know, the knocking of the ball, getting in position.

This thing is going to take a while. I mean, it's a relatively new team, a young team. And what that is against us is, and I've said it in previous interviews, the basics. Which is letting us down. And we all know that in football, for you to play at a higher level, you have to have the basics. So there's a lot of work, a lot of improvement to be done in our game.” “And I have to say, this evening, that game there, although we get a lot of goals, but you could see it was one of our better games in the sense of, we had some nice moments in the game. Stringing the pass and trying to find the gates to go forward and take a few shots. Compared to the two previous games we played. We took it from the creative phase to the finishing and took a few shots on the keeper.”

Barbados, however, took early control of the match, striking twice in quick succession with goals in the 21st and 22nd minutes. Dominica struggled to regain footing, and frustrations showed with two yellow cards in the first half—Kiyanna Phillip in the 31st minute and Britney Dennis in the 43rd.

Several players were highlighted by Coach Gustave for their effort including Rosalina Paul, Dymond Daniel, Jessica Pierre Louis, Jahricia Paul, and Anessa (Breanelle) Laurent. Gustave says that the players will need to do a lot more work to live up to their potential. “Well, the thing I would say is the fitness level. The aggression we met in our game. The physicality in our game. When you are in the hospital, all that we could have done was insufficient. Because it's just a month after a few days that we have been training. But nevertheless, I think the girls gave their all in each element. And I know they are very much excited to be here. Excited to be called up. But that is not all. They have to apply themselves more. They have to push. I'm not going to wait only when we have training. The clubs have to work with them as well. You don't just have to call the national team to do the same. You have to call the clubs to prepare the players before they are called up for nationality. I know the girls have it in them. I know they have it in them. I have been with the girls for a month. I have seen some of them play in the league. But they have to apply themselves more.”

“Because our players are, to be honest, our players are weak. Yeah, you cannot be having possession of the ball, and the player cannot push you off the ball. You know, so that's one of the things that we have to work on, strength. Strength in your ass, you have to have. It's just a... How do you say? It's a total package of building, and building is going to take a while,” he reflected.

The second half brought more pressure from the Barbadian side, particularly following some key substitutions. They extended their lead with goals in the 51st and 56th minutes, before capitalizing on a free kick in the 58th. Despite receiving a yellow card themselves, Barbados remained relentless, adding another in the 72nd minute. Tensions boiled over on the Dominican bench when Goalkeeper Coach Melvin Angol received a yellow card in the 81st minute. Barbados then sealed their dominance with a final goal in the 89th, closing the game at 7–0.

Coach Gustave admonished that there needs to be some concentrated investment and support for the young team in order to see results.

“You know, so if we work with them and continue working with them as our arm of the

program, they are the artists here in the U.S. They spend on their... But if you want results, you have to spend. There's no way you're going to get results and you're not spending. So you spend on the girls to put them in a program, to go in the gym, you know, aerobics, training, and so forth. There's no doubt that we can produce a very good team, because, I mean, the other clubs, the other teams, I mean, all the teams they have overseas players. You know, it's not... I don't want to look like I'm making excuses for the girls, but, I mean, you could see the level of the other countries. You could see those teams there are teams that have been together for a while.

“You can't just get up and just pick up a team and go and play. You can see Barbados is well- organized. St. Lucia is well-organized. And the two of the teams we were watching in the tournament is Barbados and St. Lucia. You could see their structure. They are well-organized teams. They fought hard, you know, especially in a short space of time. And we have to see, I think, we have to have enough time to train, you know. We have to have enough time to prepare a team for a tournament. You know, too many times we went to a tournament, a month, two weeks, a month or six weeks.”

Dominica will likely face St Vincent in the fight for third place on Saturday at 6:30pm.