President of the Dominica Football Association (DFA) is expressing delight after Dominica triumphed over the BVI in Thursday night’s FIFA World Cup qualifier.
He said the team is now better positioned to compete in the another qualifier against Canada in June.
“I think Dominica played very well and I am not saying that because they won the game,” he said.
He stated the fitness level of the Dominican team also contributed to the success.
“I looked at the game and when you look at the fitness of the Dominica team, I think it is above the other team. That in itself tells you that the training that we have been doing has paid off. The team was fit, it was easily seen,” Etienne noted.
He said the country can now boast of good players who possess the ability to take on teams such as Canada.
He stated that a match against Canada will provide much exposure for Dominica because the team will be coming to the island with scouts who will be on the lookout for talents.
For this to be achieved, however, Dominica has to beat BVI in the next match to be played on Sunday.
Etienne stated that if Dominica doesn’t win the game, it doesn’t mean the team is out of the bag.
“It depends on the outcome of the game,” he explained. “I’m not going to use the word Dominica is not going to win, we should win but for BVI to go through, they would have to beat us with a bigger margin and score more goals than Dominica.”
At Thursday night’s game the final score stood at BVI, 2 and Dominica, 3.
I urge the powers that be in the driver sit of football to wake up fast. We are giving the nation false hope in praising the latest games played. The national program need to be improve greatly. We need to get our best guys to represent us. We need to get qualify TD to develop our program. If that is not done our FIFA ranking will drop. A draw and a 1 goal victory against a team that is 201 out of 209 does not give us hope. Get out there and get Dominican playing professional football into our national program. Get an international TD to develop our program and stop celebrating mediocrity. Examine the Antigua, Jamaica, Trinidad team and observe their rankings. Develop a youth program where the you our promising players a able to train amongst their peer and once they show improvement can be drafted in the senior team. Lets Stop fool the nation in believing a nil nil and a 3-2 win is reason to celebrate. Canada is ranked 116. Wake DFA.
Glen , in the days when you were playing football for Dominica, I think we had a much better organization in place. The quality of players were of a higher level and there was more to choose from. It should be the other way in today’s world, since we have more money and opportunity now.
What are you doing about the standard of football in other parts of the island? The playing fiends are atrocious.
The DFA , President , is still overwhelmed , by the good performance of the team ; however , the idea of scouting players , should not be priority at all. , though the possibility remains . I’d rather hope , the focus would be a great opportunity to reach further in the qualifiers , than , Dominica has ever been . Certainly , I’m not in any way contentious or personal of his opinion , we both know , and all football fans , do understand , we are thinking the same , concerning the advancement of our players in world football
I must have watched a different game than Mr Etienne. We won the game but I wouldn’t say that the team played very well. We are definitely fitter than bvi and it showed cause they were getting tired since in the first half. Canada national team coming down with scouts? Really Mr Etienne? Tell that to someone who doesn’t know about football. When our boys go to Canada there will be coaches and scouts in the stands looking to see if we have someone that they love to see.
A win is a win, but we still have a long way to go. This should have been a much easier victory for the Dominica team and if the fitness level is better now, phew, what was it like before then. Work in progress.
One Love Dominicans!!!