Six place T&T Pro League team Joe Public FC put up a brilliant display at the Gillette Stadium on Tuesday night to come away 4-0 winners over MLS Eastern second place team New England Revolution in the CONCACAF Championship Cup.
Guyanese striker Gregory Richardson was the most impressive player off the night netting a hat-trick for the Eastern Lions and Jamaican striker Reon Nelson also getting on the score sheet that would help finish off the New England side and create history in the process as no other T&T club has ever beaten an American side at home in such competition and, in such manner. The Revolution finished with 10 men after defender Jay Heaps drew a second yellow card in the 90th minute for a rash tackle from behind on Wolry Wolfe. Joe Public will now look to it's next opponent in its Group C schedule away September (17) against Canada's Montreal Impact.
Joe Public FC (4-4-2): - 1-Alejandro Figueroa (GK), 13-Jason Springer (10-Lyndon Andrews 85th), 23-Keyeno Thomas, 20-Christopher Harvey, 19-Carlyle Mitchell, 11-Wolry Wolfe, 8-Dale Saunders ©, 9-Arnold Dwarika, 17-Kerry Baptiste, 14-Reon Nelson (31-Jamal Gay 76th), 21-Gregory Richardson.
Videos.
Gregory Richardson 16
Gregory Richardson 44
Reon Nelson 47
Gregory Richardson 80
Group C
Joe Public - T&T
Atlante - Mexico
CD Olimpia - Honduras
Montreal Impact - Canada
Fixtures
Sept 17: Montreal Impact vs Joe Public
Sept 24: Joe Public vs CD Olímpia @ 8 PM
Sept 30: Atlante vs Joe Public @ 8 PM
Oct 8: Joe Public vs Montreal Impact @ 8 PM
Oct 21: Joe Public FC vs Atlante @ 8 PM
Oct 28: CD Olímpia vs Joe Public @ 8 PM
Joe Public FC v Revolution Report.
By: revolutionsoccer.net.
Joe Public advances to the CONCACAF Champions League group stage with a 6-1 aggregate victory
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Gregory Richardson scored three goals and helped set up another, as Trinidad’s Joe Public FC defeated the New England Revolution, 4-0, in the second leg of a CONCACAF Champions League preliminary-round series on Tuesday night at Gillette Stadium. With the result, Joe Public won the two-game series, 6-1 on aggregate, and advanced to the tournament’s group stage.
Joe Public will be part of Group C in the CONCACAF Champions League, joining Mexican side Atlante, Honduran club Olimpia, and the winner of the series between the Montreal Impact (Canada) and Real Esteli (Nicaragua), which Montreal led, 1-0, after the first leg. New England’s participation in the tournament was ended with the loss.
Richardson scored his first in the 17th minute to give Joe Public a 1-0 lead in the match and a 3-1 advantage on aggregate. Wolry Wolfe’s long pass from midfield split the Revolution backline and put Richardson one-on-one with Revs goalkeeper Matt Reis, and Richardson finished to the far post from the left side of the box.
New England’s best chance of the first half – and ultimately, the match – fell to Shalrie Joseph in the 36th minute, but his close-range shot from a tight angle flew across the face of goal and past the far post.
Richardson extended the visitors’ lead to 2-0 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate just before halftime, bursting past a defender and firing a shot into the roof of the net from a very tight angle.
Less than three minutes into the second half, the Eastern Lions scored again, this time with Richardson providing the pass for Roen Nelson’s goal. Richardson played a low pass to the top of the area for Nelson, who side-footed a shot from 18 yards inside the left post.
The scoring was completed in the 81st minute when Richardson scored his third goal of the game and his fourth of the two-game series. Richardson took a short pass from Silas Spann outside the box before driving a shot inside the far post.
New England will return to MLS regular-season action on Saturday, Sept. 6, when the club travels to Ohio for a crucial Eastern Conference showdown with the Columbus Crew at 7:30 p.m. at Crew Stadium.
New England Revolution (USA) vs. Joe Public FC (TRI)
September 2, 2008 – Foxborough, Mass. (Gillette Stadium)
Scoring Summary:
JPF – Gregory Richardson (Wolry Wolfe) 17
JPF – Gregory Richardson (unassisted) 45
JPF – Roen Nelson (Gregory Richardson) 48
JPF – Gregory Richardson (Silas Spann) 81
New England Revolution: Matt Reis (GK), Chris Tierney, Amaechi Igwe, Gabriel Badilla, Jay Heaps, Mauricio Castro, Shalrie Joseph © (Rob Valentino 68), Jeff Larentowicz (Pat Phelan 46), Wells Thompson, Khano Smith, Brandon Manzonelli (Joe Germanese 72)
Substitutes Not Used: Doug Warren (GK), Chris Albright, Brandon Tyler, Sainey Nyassi
STATS: Shots 10; Shots on Goal 4; Saves 3; Corner Kicks 2; Offside 1; Fouls Committed 14
Joe Public FC: Alejandro Figueroa (GK), Jason Springer (Lyndon Andrews 85), Keyeno Thomas, Christopher Harvey, Carlyle Mitchell (Silas Spann 72), Wolry Wolfe, Dale Saunders ©, Arnold Dwarika, Kerry Baptiste, Roen Nelson (Jamal Gay 76), Gregory Richardson
Substitutes Not Used: Andre Foster (GK), Gary Glasgow, Elusma Pierre, Kerry Noray
STATS: Shots 9; Shots on Goal 7; Saves 4; Corner Kicks 3; Offside 5; Fouls Committed 13
Misconduct Summary:
JPF – Dale Saunders (caution) 13
NE – Jay Heaps (caution) 78
NE – Gabriel Badilla (caution) 88
NE – Jay Heaps (second caution/ejection) 90
Officials.
Referee: Steve DePiero
Referee’s Assistants: Hector Vergara (SAR), Daniel Belleau (JAR)
Fourth Official: Mark Geiger
Time of Game: 1:53
Weather: 67 and cloudy
Attendance: 3,523
NOTES
All four of the Revs’ first-choice forwards missed the match with injuries … Taylor Twellman (facial lacerations), Adam Cristman (right toe sprain), Kheli Dube (right adductor strain) and Kenny Mansally (right ankle sprain) were all unavailable … Khano Smith and Brandon Manzonelli started as the Revs’ forwards.
Joe Public began the match with the same starting lineup that the club used in the first leg on Aug. 26 in Trinidad.
New England played from the 75th minute to the 90th minute with 10 men, as Khano Smith left the match with an injury after the Revs had used their three allotted substitutions.
New England played the final moments of stoppage time with nine men, after Jay Heaps was issued a second yellow card and subsequent red card.
After playing the full 90 minutes as both a center back and a defensive midfielder in tonight’s match, Gabriel Badilla will depart tomorrow to join the Costa Rica National Team for a pair of 2010 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Suriname (Sept. 6) and Haiti (Sept. 10) … Badilla is expected to miss the Revolution’s next two matches (at Columbus, Sept. 6; against Chivas USA, Sept. 11).
Joe Public became the first Caribbean team to defeat a club from the United States in the history of CONCACAF club competitions … the club from Trinidad also became the first Caribbean side to score as many as three goals in one match against a team from the United States.
Eastern Lions take centre stage.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).
Public statement
Success, according to some sociologists, has more to do with how one feels he is perceived by others rather than an inventory of his own achievements. By such a benchmark, it can be argued that Bmobile Joe Public chairman Jack Warner may feel more satisfaction in Tuesday's 4-0 CONCACAF Champions League win over United States Major League Soccer (MLS) team, New England Revolution, than Public's maiden Pro League title in 2006.
It must have been nice to outdo his local rivals, two years ago, but how much sweeter to humiliate MLS powerhouses like Revolution-they were MLS Cup finalists for the last three successive seasons-in their backyard. The Trinidad and Tobago football community and, in particular, the other nine Pro League outfits, should share his joy.
Thirteen years have passed since Joe Public opened their doors and declared their intention to become the Caribbean's premier team and a force in CONCACAF. In that time, Warner handed the daily management of the club to elder son, Daryan, before his second son and present boss, Darryl, took the reins.
The local public's reaction to news from their Macoya headquarters was mixed at best.
There were sniggers all around, in 1998, when the "Eastern Lions" were drawn against MLS outfit, DC United, in a CONCACAF fixture and ended on the wrong side of an embarrassing 8-0 rout in Washington.
"After the first two," then Public coach and present director Keith Look Loy told the Washington Post, "it's hard to remember (anything else)."
Warner, who promised victory beforehand, strode into the dressing room after the loss and threatened to immediately dismiss the entire squad, which included present players like Arnold Dwarika and Lyndon Andrews.
In retrospect, Trinidad and Tobago's domestic league-Public represented the Semi Professional Football league (SPFL) at the time-was still underdeveloped and unprepared for such a contest. Ten years prior, Defence Force won the CONCACAF tournament outright while the army/coast guard combination and Police continued to have strong showings into the early 1990s.
But the steady exodus of local talent to Europe and the spread of talent as young players began to snub Police and Defence Force for salaried jobs elsewhere in the SPFL meant that domestic football was in a state of flux.
Defence Force, Clico San Juan Jabloteh and W. Connection sounded a warning to the confederation's top leagues with first leg triumphs in this millennium before stumbling on foreign soil.
Public might have lost their chance too as a series of wasted opportunities led to a slender 2-1 first leg win at Macoya last Tuesday. Barbadian coach Keith Griffith, barely a month into his first stint in Trinidad, casually promised an away win.
The fact that Griffith was good as his word is only half the story. The expressive, proactive approach of the Public team in Boston was a sight to behold-despite the obvious limitations in observing the proceedings by television.
Public were fearless and set the pace from the kick-off. Griffith started with two conventional strikers and as many wingers with an ageing playmaker, Dwarika, to boot. Dwarika, who was superb in the first leg, again outshone Revolution's much vaunted Grenadian star Shalrie Joseph in the midfield and Public prospered as a result.
If Dutchman Ruud Gullit coined the phrase "sexy football" during his coaching stint at Chelsea, perhaps Griffith should get copyright for "happy football".
Of course, one drizzle does not make the rainy season. Public are sixth in the league at present and Griffith's two domestic outings so far ended with a triumph against a fading United Petrotrin and a loss to second from bottom Defence Force.
There is much to be done before he can consider himself the equal of Connection's Stuart Charles-Fevrier or Jabloteh's Terry Fenwick, while the work of Rangers' Anthony Streete, Economy North East Stars' Clint Marcelle, Petrotrin's Brian Williams and the Neal & Massy Caledonia AIA duo of Jamal Shabazz and Jerry Moe also raised eyebrows this year.
Griffith will not have the element of surprise either when Public face Mexican side Atlante, Honduran club Olimpia and Canada's Montreal Impact in the group stage.
But, for now, it is best to focus on the joy of the present. And to applaud the mercurial Guyanese striker Gregory "Jackie Chan" Richardson, whose hat-trick kicked Revolution into orbit, and the precise delivery of Kerry Baptiste, trickery of Dwarika, leadership of Dale Saunders, cheeky innovation of Silas Spann, spunk of Wolry Wolfe, Jamal Gay and Jason "Froggy" Springer and calm authority of Keyeno Thomas and Alejandro Figueroa. It was a resounding "Public" statement.