By LeVaughn Flynn, Staff ReporterPREMIER League champions Portmore United and last season's runners-up Arnett Gardens will look to close the deal on their Netherland Antilles opponents in return-leg CONCACAF Club Championship matches today.
Portmore United, which won their first leg encounter 1-0 at Ferdie Neita Park last Wednesday, left yesterday for Curacao where they will play FC Barber, starting at 7:30 p.m. tonight.
Arnett Gardens coach, Jerome Waite, said he is expecting Jong Colombia to attack like a wounded animal in their game at Tony Spaulding Sports Complex at 6:00 p.m.
"The last time both teams met, they (Jong Colombia) played a more defensive game so I expect them to come attacking because they don't have anything to lose," Waite said.
Arnett thrashed Jong Colombia 5-1 in the first leg in Curacoa and Waite said that he noticed a few distinct things that the team did differently to earn a convincing win.
"There were three areas that we saw a lot of improvement. One, the penetrative passes from the midfield, two the finishing and three the concentration," Waite pointed out.
Ray Graham, with a hat-trick, Oneil Dunn and Leon Strickland netted Arnett's goals against the Dutch Caribbean league runners-up for whom Kevin Jensen scored the consolation goal.
THREE STRAIGHT
Last week's victory made it three wins in-a-row for Arnett including their last two National Premier League (NPL) games against Constant Spring and Star Cosmos. They seem to have regained their winning form and Waite said he hoped this is the beginning Arnett's resurgence.
"Hopefully they are coming into their own but there is still a lot more work to do to get them in the right shape," he said.
Both teams will be without one of last week's contributors as Arnett's Leon Strickland and Jong Colombia's captain Carlos Martha picked up red cards in the first leg encounter.
Jong Colombia were due in the island last night.
WINNING GOAL
Oneil 'Chippy' McDonald got the winning goal for Portmore and according to coach Lenworth Hyde, who said he was "disappointed" with the result as they missed numerous chances to widen the gap.
"We got a lot of chances that we should have scored," said Hyde after the marginal victory last week.
Portmore left the island yesterday morning for the Netherland Antilles and before leaving Hyde told The Gleaner that they would not be using their first victory as a "comfort chair" against the Netherland Antilles' back-to-back national champions.
"We can't go up there and sit back on the 1-0 lead. We have to go up there and attack and win the game again. We must go out there and try to score some more goals. This team is a hard-running team, they're very physically built so we expect them to come running hard at their home, so we have to prepare for that and keep our heads over there," Hyde said.
Hyde also noted: "We have to keep possession of the football and attack them down the flank. We know how they play and they are very strong but we just have to keep on doing the same things, and on the rebound we have to finish the chances.
DIFFERENT GAME"
FC Barber's coach, Norman 'Nooi' Girigorie, complained about the surface at Ferdie Neita Park but said it will be a different game on their home turf.
"On our field we will play with more confidence. We're gonna play better, more offensive at home. We had a problem with the field (Ferdie Neita). The field is not good. We don't have a grass field in Curacao," he said, referring to the artificial turf on which the match will be played.
In regards to Portmore's style, he added: "They play like other Caribbean teams, long football and hard running. We prepared tactically for that kind of play. We've to decide the match at home. We lost 1-0 but at home we're gonna win."
