Curacao, BVI, Turks and Caicos among winners as T&T, Guyana draw on opening day of Concacaf Men's U-17 tourney

Written by Sports Desk. Posted in CONCACAF. | 08 February 2025 | 1174 Views
Tags: Football, Football/Juban Uriarte, Football/Alessandro Valle, Football/Philip Nelson

Curacao, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the British Virgin Islands (BVI) were among winners on the opening day of the Concacaf U-17 Men’s Qualifiers as they registered contrasting performances in their respective group encounters on Friday.

With only the eight group winners set to progress as Concacaf’s representatives at the 2025 FIFA U-17 World Cup, those three teams, along with Belize and Nicaragua, gave themselves a solid foundation to build on in Groups A, B, and C for the remainder of the tournament.

Favourites Canada (Group A), Costa Rica (Group B), and Mexico (Group C) were idle on opening matchday and will kick off their campaigns on Sunday.

In Group A, a brace from Schuyler Selver (24th and 36th) and Wepsdel Saintilus (2nd) saw the Turks and Caicos Islands to a 3-0 win over Anguilla in the curtain-raiser at the National Sports Centre in Bermuda.

The feature contest saw the host slip to a 6-1 loss to Curacao. An eighth-minute own-goal by Sami Carolo got the show going for Curacao, after which D'shawn Anastacia (17th), Dayvi Busby (47th and 67th), another own-goal by Dakari Smith Davis (88th), and Taysison Bregita (90+5) completed the rout. Kennahz Fray (71st) got Bermuda’s consolation.

Over in Group B, BVI made light work of Sint Maarten in a lopsided 4-0 win at Estadio Nacional in San José, Costa Rica.

Luca Stuttard led the way with a brace in the 69th and 73rd, while Sam Sharma (34th) and Latriel Williams (62nd) got the others.

The feature contest of the double header saw Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana play out a 1-1 stalemate.

Joshua Morris gave Guyana a 32nd-minute lead, but that was cancelled out by Philip Nelson’s 54th-minute strike, which earned the young Soca Warriors a share of the spoils.

Meanwhile, Belize and Nicaragua romped to 7-0 and 6-0 wins over Dominica and Barbados, respectively, in their double header at Mexican Football Federation facilities in Toluca, Mexico.

Alessandro Valle (2nd and 24th), Jahson Stanford (15th and 49th), and Marlon Meza (36th and 46th) all registered a brace, while Breyden Olivas (79th) capped the win for Belize.

For Nicaragua, Juban Uriarte had a banner day with goals in the 32nd, 40th, 53rd, and 90th to lead the charge. YadeAviles (34th) and Edwin Zepeda (70th) were the other scorers.