Much To Overcome For St Lucia Football... Including Itself!

Shambolic. It translates to "poorly organized and in a messy or chaotic state." No apter word could describe St Lucia's preparations for CONCACAF Group D competition in the 2014 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers™.

St Lucia's first opponent is Canada, whom they've never faced. The Mexico 1986 finalists have come down in the world somewhat, ranked just 105th in the world. But with a young side boasting an abundance of pace, and a fine blend of youth and experience, they are hopeful not only of beating first-time opponents St Lucia on Friday at BMO Field in Toronto, but of advancing to the next round of qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil™ as winners of Group D. The other two teams in Group D are St Kitts-Nevis and Puerto Rico.

The Canadian team is led by Atiba Hutchinson of PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Eredivisie. A versatile player, the jet-heeled Hutchinson is most effective coming up through midfield and adding himself to the attack. The defensive and leadership roles are handled by long-time Germany-based captain Paul Stalteri and Burnley’s David Edgar. In attack, Dwayne De Rosario of New York Red Bulls will add the creativity while Ali Gerba plays the poacher’s role.

The Canada team has been in camp under coach Stephen Hart, who gives the usual "We're not taking anyone lightly" speeches, but who also backs them up by ensuring that his team was training at the BMO Field from Wednesday evening, two days before their big opening game.

St Lucia, by contrast, travelled to Canada (only a six-hour journey, longer than several of these players would ever have spent in an aircraft) on Thursday evening. As I type, aaround 11pm, they should just have cleared Customs and Immigration, and should be on their way to the hotel. Want to takea bet that they did not check into their rooms in advance? That would mean players would be filling out forms and settling into bed sometime after midnight.

The last part of that previous paragraph is speculation, but given that up to Thursday afernoon the St Lucia Football Association was still sorting out players' kit, it's probably a bit more believable than talk of the Yeti or majee noir. Given that after the team's last friendly the coach and technical director took leave, less than two weeks ahead of the Canada match, I rather suspect my speculation is right on target.

By the way, did I mention that the Canada-St Lucia match is 8pm Friday? As in less than 24 hours after the St Lucia team touches down in Toronto?

St Lucia made it to this stage by beating Aruba in the preliminary round. Down 4-2 after the first game in Aruba, St Lucia won by the same score at home, thanks to a hat-trick by forward Jamil Joseph. St Lucia held its nerve to win 5-4 on penalty kicks. Having made the second round on 12 July, they did not schedule a friendly until 21 August, when they lost 4-0 to Barbados in Bridgetown. 16 players were used in that game. Four have been dropped.

For context, St Lucia is 183rd in the latest FIFA Rankings. Aruba, against whom St Lucia struggled to advance, is ranked 168th. Barbados, to whom St Lucia lost 4-0, is ranked 130th. And Canada, again, is 105th. Ouch.

Alain Providence is the coach of the national team. Cyril "Ces" Podd is technical director, and more often than not, the team's mouthpiece. Although the president of the Football Association told me that nobody from the executive or technical staff would be available to appear on a 7am radio sports talk show, I was also unable to get through to Mr. Podd despite ringing his phone a number of times the day prior to his departure for Canada.

And as for the team itself? Several of the players called up against Aruba have been dropped for the Canada match. Among the hold-overs, young fullback Kurt Frederick enjoys going forward, speedy and physical defender Nathan Justin is one of the more experienced players on the team, and defensive midfielder Hiram Hunte is a rock in the middle of the park. But none of these players has more than a handful of caps. Nor does even the captain, midfielder Guy George.

Also named to the squad against Canada are promising young midfielders Shane Paul and Zaine Pierre. Shane was MVP of the 2010 Blackheart Inter-District competition. Zaine, an electric dribbler who plays alongside Frederick for W Connection of Trinidad & Tobago, is reputedly a target for some of the world's top clubs. Former Chelsea forward Leon Knight, whose father is a St Lucian, tweeted earlier this month that he had been called up to the St Lucia team. Unsurprisingly, nobody from the FA or its technical staff ever commented, and Knight (now at Coleraine FC) is not in St Lucia's squad.

You know, sport is gloriously uncertain. St Lucia might well end up knocking the Canadians around and beating them in their own backyard, in front of thousands of flag-waving Caribbean patriots. If they do, though, it will be a triumph for what appears to be a demoralised and under-prepared team over an opponent with superior resources, and vastly greater experience.

Just for the record St Lucia's men's football team's record loss came in 2006, going down 8-0 to neighbours St Vincent & the Grenadines.