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Photograph courtesy of MexsportDefiant mood: Zeiko Lewis, pictured on the ball during the 2-1 defeat by Haiti on Sunday, is confident Bermuda can bounce back against Costa Rica in Frisco, Texas, tomorrow and maintain their push for a place in the quarter-finals of the Gold Cup

Stephen Wright Sports Editor Frisco, Texas

Kyle Lightbourne, the Bermuda coach, insists his team must dare to be bold as they look to pull off a major upset against Costa Rica at the Toyota Stadium, in Frisco, Texas, tomorrow.

After losing their opening group B game against Haiti in San José, Costa Rica, on Sun-day, Bermuda are in a desperate battle to keep their quarter-final hopes alive.

A Nicaragua victory against

Haiti in the earlier match, would put Bermuda in an almost must win situation against Costa Rica, a nation that has qualified for four of the past five World Cups.

Costa Rica crushed Nicara-gua 4-0 at the Estadio Nacional in the second group B match on Sunday, with goals from Bry-an Oviedo, Celso Borges, Elias Aguilar and Allan Cruz.

“We know it’s going to be difficult for us; we’re not hiding from that,” Lightbourne said.

“We’re going to have our dif-ficult moments and it’s how we manage them.

“We’re not afraid to play, though. My team has been drilled well enough to do that.”

Costa Rica, ranked 39th in the Fifa world rankings, 135 places above Bermuda, have an

array of experienced stars such as Joel Campbell, the former Arsenal forward, Sunderland left back Oviedo, Cristian Gam-boa, the Celtic right back, and midfielder Borges, who plays for Turkish top-flight side Goztepe.

“The whole team is danger-ous,” Lightbourne added. “We had someone watching their game [against Nicaragua] and we’ve done a report on them.

“We will be prepared. We’ve been training hard and we’ve put the work in.”

Danté Leverock, the Bermu-da captain, has urged his team-mates to embrace the big occa-sion and is hoping the island can join a long list of giant-killings at major competitions.

“Anything can happen; stranger things have happened in tournament play,” said the de-

fender, who scored his side’s goal in their 2-1 defeat by Haiti.

“We’ve made our job a little bit difficult, but we’re still fo-cused and you never know what can happen on the day. “They’re a top team, have played at the World Cup, and have top-class players. However, we’re going to go out to play and enjoy it.”

Zeiko Lewis, the Bermuda winger, said Bermuda have re-fused to give up on a place in the last eight and will not be in awe of their opponents.

“We didn’t get the result we deserved against Haiti and now we have to focus on Costa Rica,” Lewis said. “They are the favou-rites, but that doesn’t faze us.

“We’re still in a position to make the quarter-finals and we’ll be doing everything we can to qualify [for the next round].”

Kendall Waston, the Costa Rica captain, has sent out an om-inous warning to Bermuda after declaring that his side can only improve after their win over Nicaragua.

“We wanted this win for our community, especially because in the last couple of games we had not been winning,” the de-fender said via translator.

“We started the Gold Cup on the right foot making histo-ry with the first Gold Cup game being played here [in Costa Rica]. We continue to go step by step.”

• Stephen Wright travelled to Frisco, Texas, courtesy of Jet Blue, which provided flights between San José, Costa Rica, Orlando and Aus-tin. Flights available from www.jetblue.com

Lightbourne urges squad to be bold in search of an upset

Lawrence Trott

George Cannonier has returned as coach of St David’s and is hop-ing to restore some unity in the team as they get set to begin the defence of their Eastern Coun-ties title next month.

A rift within the team led to the resignation of captain Chris Douglas after their Twenty20 Premier Division loss to Bailey’s Bay on June 8, while Kameron Fox was also replaced last week, as head coach with Cannonier returning to the post he gave up last season.

Neither Douglas nor George O’Brien played in the week-end matches against Flatts and Southampton Rangers. Justin Pitcher took over the captaincy of the Twenty20 team, with vet-eran Lionel Cann set to lead the team in 50 overs play.

“I felt my services were need-ed with the coaching again,” said Cannonier who has stepped down as cricket chairman. “Things weren’t sorted out with the coaching from the beginning and the management thought it was time to straighten it out.

“Kameron and I are still help-ing each other; you need more than one coach anyway in mod-ern cricket. I wasn’t happy with the way things were going.

“I don’t know if it was a coaching issue or what, but when we sorted things out, we found there was a lot of disruption be-tween the players, arguing on the field. It came down to Chris resigning and when George was overlooked [for captain] he stopped playing.”

St David’s, the Twenty20 champions, suffered their third loss in six games in that compe-tition when they lost to South-ampton Rangers on Sunday, all but ending their chance of re-taining that title. “St David’s have lost so many players in the past and we’re still able to per-form at a high level,” Cannonier pointed out.

“Even with the two players missing, we still put up a pretty good battle against Southamp-ton and had an unfortunate loss. I have watched every game [this season] and a lot of things have happened that I didn’t agree with and just thought maybe I should come back and see if I can help out.”

St David’s, who are hosting the Eastern Counties series this summer, will meet Bailey’s Bay in the first round on July 20. They have beaten Bay twice this season, in both the 50-overs and T20 competitions.

“Some things happened during that [Bay] game that were unnecessary and management thought they had to do some-thing about it, being that it is so close to the Eastern Counties,”

Cannonier returns to rejuvenate St David’s

Continued on Page 27

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