Host Barbados Tuesday night beat The Cayman Islands 3-0 turning the table on their northern Caribbean rivals to emerge winners of a CONCACAF Nations League grouping and in the process earned a chance to qualify for the 2021 Gold Cup.
The two teams entered the game at the Wildey Astroturf with the Cayman Turtles leading the points standings ahead of Barbados Tridents who badly needed a victory to win one of the four groups in League ‘C’ of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Football Nations League competition thereby earning a spot in the qualifiers playoff for the four remaining places in the prestigious Gold Cup competition.
Trident’s Hallam Hope scored in the 32nd minute and Armando Lashley notched one in the 86th, then Hope came back to put the last nail in Cayman’s coffin with a 90th minute goal.
This victory also earned the Bajans a promotion in the CONCACAF ranking system, moving them from League ‘C’ to League ‘B’ in the three-league hierarchy with League ‘A’ being the highest.
Twelve teams will play off in the qualifiers in June 2020 for the four remaining Gold Cup places. Among them are eight Caribbean teams, Cuba, Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Montserrat, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados and The Bahamas.
Caribbean teams already qualified for the Gold Cup based on their performance in the Nations League matches that ended Tuesday night are Grenada, Jamaica, Curacao, Martinique, and Surname.
