“…Hall got the country on the scoreboard with a header off a deflection in the 50th minute of the game.”
The men’s national soccer team got out to a fast start at the Thomas A. Robinson National Stadium yesterday evening and held on to defeat Bonaire, 2-1, taking its first game of the Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) Nations League. The Bahamas plays out of Group B in League C with Bonaire and the British Virgin Islands (BVI), and will engage in home and away games against those two nations in the first round of league play. Just the winner of the group will advance to the next round and to the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup Qualifiers, and The Bahamas is off to a fast start. They will travel to play the BVI on October 10. Bonaire defeated the BVI, 4-2, at the Ergilio Hato Stadium in Willemstad, Curaçao, on Friday.
The 19 young men who represented the country, came through in flying colors in front of an enthusiastic crowd at home last night. It was Nesley Jean’s first win as national team head coach, Hepple and player/coach Happy Hall scored their first international goals in many years, and The Bahamas got its first win in a meaningful game in international play in eight years.
After a scoreless first half, Hall got the country on the scoreboard with a header off a deflection in the 50th minute of the game. Hepple got an insurance goal for The Bahamas in the 78th minute, evading a defender and taking a shot from just outside the penalty box. He dribbled the ball past Bonaire’s goalkeeper Rishison Frans to give The Bahamas a 2-0 lead.
Bonaire got a late goal as striker Yurick Seinpaal scored in the 89th minute, but it was too little too late for them.
