Over the past weekend, July 28 – July 30, the Anguilla Football Association (AFA) hosted a series of friendly matches with neighboring islands, St. Maarten and St. Kitts & Nevis. In the first match, on Friday July 28, the U15 boys National Team went up against St. Maarten, whereby they were able to defeat St. Maarten 2 goals to nil. In the second match of the evening, the Senior Women’s National Team took to the field over powering St. Maarten to secure a 7- 0 win. On Sunday July 30, the Senior Women returned to the field against St. Kitts & Nevis defeating them 3 goals to nil, thus securing a back-to-back victory.
In a recent public Facebook post, current Head Coach of the Anguilla Senior Women’s National Team, Mr. Ben Gooden, said “The AFA have shown an incredible commitment to the women’s game by guaranteeing more football to be played and an investment into the long-term development of our young athletes. More needs to be highlighted about their pro-active approach in talent development.”
“They have waited 13 years for a win and this group of players have gone and won 2 games in a weekend,” he said. “Beating St Maarten 7-0 on Friday is the highest ever victory by the women’s national team and beating St Kitts & Nevis 3-0 last night is the first time they have won back-to-back games.”
Both the U15 Boys and Senior Women National Teams are currently in preparation for their upcoming respective tournaments – the Concacaf Boys’ U-15 Championship is scheduled to take place from August 6-13 in Santo Domingo and the 2023 Concacaf Women Gold Cup Qualifiers scheduled to commence in September with both home and away matches.
