Bermuda’s two National Academy select teams both were positioned with a chance to move into the Championship match.
The Under 16’s were facing the FC United team from Mississippi, having topped their group with identical 2-0 wins over Tupelo Futbol Club and Baton Rouge Soccer Club.
The U14s were in a critical match vs the Atlanta Fire, with three teams from the group in with a chance to advance to the final depending on results from the final group games.
The Under 16 Bermuda team has been producing some sterling performances laced with steely defensive play that has stifled the opposing offences. Captain Ajai Daniles and young Quinaceo Hunt have yet to concede a goal, and are backed up by a strong defensive line.
Jason Symonds, Llneiko Millett, Jordan Lambe and Jerome Bailey have been formidable in defense combining speed, power and intellect to cohesively snuff out most attacks from the opponent. On the occasions when the line was breached, Daniels and Hunt have ably provided the cover.
Bermuda has not conceded a goal and this defensive fortitude has allowed the attack the patience to chip away at breaking down the determined defense of the opponent. Judah Chapman’s tremendous work rate has seen him be at the center of many of the Bermuda attacks creating goal scoring opportunities for himself as well as others. Macquille Walker would open the scoring off of an assist by the ever improving Jerome Bailey, who is laying a marker for inclusion in the U17 squad for this summer’s Caribbean Football Union qualifiers. Bermuda would lead 1-0 at half time.
The trend would continue in the second half with Bermuda controlling play with patient build up, moving the ball around to create openings while shutting down any threat of attack from the opponent.
Symonds and Chapman would add to the score line to ease Bermuda into the final for the Under 16 Gold Division for the second consecutive year with a 3-0 victory.
The Bermuda Under 14 National Academy Select team needed to defeat the Atlanta Fire in their final group match, along with a Birmingham United loss or tie to advance to the final. Bermuda entered the day tied in second place with Birmingham on 3 points, while Atlanta topped the group with 4 points.
The match was evenly balanced with each team trying to penetrate the opposing defense to get the important go ahead goal. Neither could find the goal they were looking for in the first half with the score line tied at 0-0 at half time.
Atlanta would come out in the second half and sought to pressure Bermuda’s defense as they attempted to build their attacks from the back. On several occasions they would dispossess Bermuda threatening to score. Bermuda’s build up play looked promising to produce an opening in the tight knit opponent’s defense, but the final pass was lacking at times.
Atlanta would seize on an opportunity to score when they were able to follow up on a loose ball in the box resultant from a free kick from outside the penalty area to edge ahead 1-0. Bermuda still looked capable of salvaging something from this match until Atlanta would strike again off of a free kick that was not cleanly collected to take a 2-0. With time fading Bermuda tried desperately to find a way back, but it would prove to be not enough time as Atlanta advanced to the final with the 2-0 win.
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