Dominica Falls 2-0 to St. Vincent in Women’s Football Clash

After a six-year pause in the WIFA regional women’s football competition, the Dominica Senior Women’s National Team took the field in St. Vincent on Sunday in a highly anticipated return of tournament play. Despite moments of resilience, the Dominican side fell 2-0 to the hosts.

St. Vincent opened the scoring in the 27th minute, capitalizing on Dominica’s

unforced errors and maintaining a more aggressive attacking presence. The first

half closed 1-0, with Dominica still within striking distance.

Early in the second half, goalkeeper Dyamond Daniel kept Dominica alive with

two spectacular saves that denied St. Vincent what looked like certain goals. Her

performance gave the team a fighting chance, but in the 81st minute the

Vincentians doubled their lead to secure the win.

Team Captain, Alianne George, commended the goalie but stressed there is more

work to be done.

“I think we need to work on our communication. That is one of our main

issues. We played hard but I really think our first touch as well,

communication, we need to work on it. We were fighting, but I think the fight

could be harder. And to be honest, my keeper stood out a lot. I'm really proud

of her.”

Meanwhile Coach Ronnie Gustave said his side did not deliver as expected.

“Yeah, I'm not pleased with the way we performed today. I expected better,

but it's just the first game. We were too slow to the ball and our passes

weren't precise to our players. We were not playing, when we grabbed the

ball, moving in space for the ball. We were too stagnant within the game. And

then our vision going forward, we were too slow at it as well.”

“I think it's not that St. Vincent played exceptional football against us. It's

just that they got the opportunity and they score the goals, because our

reaction was too slow, especially in defence… When we have the ball, we have

time and space to move with it. And we were trying to get rid of it too fast.

And then certain players were holding the ball a bit too long. So, as a result of

that, in transition from offense to defence, we were a bit too slow,” he added.

Coach Gustave also noted that the team has great potential to do well in the

competition.

“Well, I think I saw a glimpse of, especially in defence, the knocking from side

to side. And also the goalkeeper, Dyamond, had a terrific outcome this

evening in the goal. She saved us quite a bit, saving those goals again too. I

think it was two soft goals because of our reaction, because we were not

positioned properly in defence. But that's a game, one to win, one to lose. But I

still have to give it to the girls, while they haven't played at that level. And I'm

still proud of them. As I say, we're looking to go forward in a positive way and

we will build on that.”

In preparation for the next match, he said the team will be working on a few

strategies. “Well, actually, tomorrow (Monday) is a day off, but we'll be training

tomorrow. So, tomorrow we're going to work on some of our tactical aspects

of the game. In movements, we have to run those and see how we take it from

there.”

Dominica will face St Lucia on Tuesday at 5pm.