As the Cayman Islands Men’s National Football team continues to fine-tune their preparation ahead of their biggest match in recent memory, the Compass caught up with several players during a training session to find out how they are feeling before kickoff.
Cayman will play Guadeloupe on Friday, 15 Nov., with a trip to the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup on the line – the biggest opportunity for the men’s team in history and their toughest task since they played Canada nearly three years ago.
Though it would appear that the Caymanian squad are major underdogs going into the game, players are keeping a level head and relying on one another to pull off what would be one of the biggest wins in the country’s history.
Lachlin Lambert, who holds the pressure of keeping goals out of his team’s net, said his confidence in his teammates is at an all-time high coming off their recent form where the men have continuously made history with monumental victories.
“The recent wins have been really good for us, so hopefully we can continue this run and hopefully win both games [against Guadeloupe],” Lambert said.
“Obviously, it’s a big task being a goalkeeper on a national team, it’s a lot, but I think the team does really well in tough situations, like we did versus St Kitts and Antigua and hopefully we can do something again.”
The last time Cayman and Guadeloupe were matched up was in 2008, when Cayman lost 7-1 at the CAC Games.
Guadeloupe will come into the game on Friday with recent wins over St Kitts (5-0) and Cuba (4-1) along with a 2-2 draw against Canada – a team that beat Cayman 11-0.
‘That extra push that we might need’
However, the Cayman boys are not intimidated by the force they face. In fact, long-time national team defender Jabari Campbell said Guadeloupe should not underestimate his team.
“Guadeloupe is most likely going to come in underestimating us,” Campbell said. “It’s probably going to be the strongest team we played in a while but once we have each other’s back, I believe so much in this team that, no matter what and no matter who we go against, I feel like we can still get a result.”
Cayman will have home advantage and Campbell expects to feed off the energy from the crowd, noting that it’s a major boost to the team’s morale.
“They always say the crowd is like the 12th man on the team, so we hope to have a lot of fans out getting behind us and they might not understand how much it means to us, but when we see our friends and our family cheering for us, that gives us that extra push that we might need to get past the finish line.”
Attacking midfielder Jacobbi Tugman said he is ready for action with his coach and brothers-in-arms.
“Joey [Jap Tjong] is a great coach, and he gives all the players confidence in order to go and play like we can,” Tugman said. “I think we just have to be 100% focused and just go in and play. All the players trust each other, and we build, not as a team, but as a family so that we can play on our strengths.”
The high-stakes game is set to kick off at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex at 3pm.
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