BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC
ARCH-RIVALS Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, have been drawn to meet each other in the opening game of the 2005 Digicel Caribbean Cup football final round in Barbados on February 20.
The two regional football giants, who have shared 10 of the 11 titles since Caribbean Cup football was inaugurated in 1989, will be contesting the four-team finals with hosts Barbados and Cuba.
Jamaica, Caribbean Cup champions in 1991 and 1998, eliminated CFU top-10 teams Haiti and St. Lucia en route to the final four, while T&T's Soca Warriors also knocked off CFU top-10 teams in reaching the finals, hurdling Grenada and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) to get to the final round.
A FIRST FOR BARBADOS
This is the first time since 1989 that Barbados is staging the CFU Nations Cup tournament and after Jamaica's Reggae Boyz meet T&T February 20 in the opener at 6.00 p.m. local time, Cuba will face home team Bar-bados at 8.00 p.m.
Eight-time Caribbean Cup champions Trinidad & Tobago will then meet Cuba
two days later, on Tuesday February 22, while Barbados face two-time champions Jamaica. And the CFU final round concludes on Thursday February 24, with Cuba meeting Jamaica and Barbados facing Trinidad & Tobago.
The top three teams from CFU final round will qualify to the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup in the USA from July 6-24.
