Saint Lucia Beats Guyana In Caribbean Cup Football

Tremain Shayn Paul confirmed Saint Lucia's win with an 84th-minute goal

For over 20 years, Guyana has had Saint Lucia's number in football. According to FIFA.com, Saint Lucia won the first meeting in 1991, but since then the South Americans have run off four victories over their east Caribbean counterparts, holding them goalless in three of those fixtures. The last time they met, Guyana triumphed 3-0. That it was on Saint Lucia's home ground, Beausejour Stadium, would have been even more galling. 

Nearly two years since that Gold Cup Qualifying Group 2 match, the 2014 Windward Islands champions were set to meet the Golden Jaguars once again. This time, the venue would be Warner Part in Basseterre, the capital of St Kitts-Nevis, as neutral a venue as any in the Caribbean, famed as the Guyanese are for their intra-regional diaspora. The occasion was the opening rounds of the Caribbean Football Union's 2014 Caribbean Cup. 

Both teams had come into the fixture after goalless draws in their respective first matches of Group 6, Saint Lucia against the home team and Guyana against Dominica. So it was all square and all to play for on Friday, the second match day in this four-team tournament.

The deadlock was broken after 13 minutes by one of the most senior of Saint Lucia's players, defensive midfielder Sheldon Emmanuel converting a header to record the national team's first goal against Guyana since 2006. The game seesawed from there, with Saint Lucia's defense largely resolute, and their quest for a clinching goal depending mainly on the counter-attack. Six minutes from time, Tremain Paul produced the goods.

It was just the fourth international goal for Tremain, also known as Shayn. The 23-year-old, who plays for W Connection Football Club in the Trinidad & Tobago Pro League, made his international debut for Saint Lucia in 2011. 

Momentarily, Saint Lucia were top of the table, but the home team dominated Dominica 5-0, starting with a Kervin Lawrence own goal in the 3rd minute, a strike from England-based Romaine Sawyers in the 18th, and another from Atiba Harris of the San Jose Earthquakes in the 29th. Staked to a 3-0 lead at the interval, the Kittitians got further goals from British-born forward Zephaniah Thomas (77) and Jovaughn Josh Leader (85).

Group 6 concludes Sunday evening, Saint Lucia and Dominica playing from 5:30pm, St Kitts-Nevis and Guyana from 8:30pm. The group is wide open; last night's winning teams could draw or even lose narrowly and finish in the top two, thus guaranteeing advancement to the next round. The two winless teams could still advance with big enough wins. Saint Lucia has beaten Dominica twice in their last three most recent meetings.