With merely seconds left on the clock and the Cayman Islands closing in on a monumental victory over St. Kitts and Nevis, a mistake resulting in an own-goal cost the nation three points that would have guaranteed a qualification to the next round.
“This has made me very emotional,” Alfredo Whittaker, president of the Cayman Islands Football Association, told the Compass after the game. “Unfortunately for us, we went down and we equalised with an extreme amount of added time, which was initially nine minutes and went on to 11.”
In the end, the Cayman senior men drew one-all with St. Kitts on Tuesday, 15 Oct., at the Newtown Football Stadium, in their second-leg fixture of the 2024-25 CONCACAF Nations League.
Cayman held off their tough opposition throughout the match, and took the lead in the 60th minute after Zachary Scott found the back of the net.
From that point on, the Cayman men kept their defence locked with commendable efforts, and even though the match official tallied up nine minutes of added time, Cayman, with the odds seemingly stacked against them, still clung tightly onto hope of a win.
However, that hope was crushed after a deflection off Joshewa Campbell went into his own net resulting in the game finishing 1-1.
“I am proud of the team, but unfortunately the official was again biased for St. Kitts,” a furious Whittaker said. “They were favouring the St. Kitts team. They allowed them three offside goals in Cayman and now they gave them 11 minutes of added time at home.”
Though Cayman lost the chance to automatically advance in the Nations League, the team can still make history depending the score of their counterparts’ game in League C. Should Bahamas lose to Barbados in their Group A finale, Cayman will advance to the play-in next month.
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