Posted on June 20, 2012
MARABELLA, Trinidad – W Connection will return to the CONCACAF Champions League for the first time in three years, joining fellow Trinidad & Tobago club Caledonia AIA as both teams won their semifinal matches in the Caribbean club championship on Tuesday.
W Connection, which eliminated the New York Red Bulls in the 2009 preliminary round before finishing third in its group, defeated the two-time defending champion Puerto Rico Islanders, 4-1. after Caledonia AIA beat Antigua Barracuda FC, 2-0, in the first semifinal.
The results left one berth undecided for the 24-team field in the CONCACAF Champions League, which will be determined Thursday when Barracuda FC and the Islanders face off in the third-place match. Puerto Rico is seeking a fifth consecutive trip to the Champions League.
W Connection and Caledonia will face off later Thursday in the final of the CFU Club Champions Cup to not only crown the Caribbean champion, but also complete the pairings for the group stage.
The winner will join Group 4 with the Seattle Sounders (United States) and Marathon (Honduras), while the runner-up will be placed in Group 8 with Xelaju (Guatemala) and Chivas de Guadalajara (Mexico).
The third-place finisher will go into Group 5 with the LA Galaxy (U.S.) and Isidro Metapan (El Salvador).
In the first semifinal, Radanfah Abu Bakr put Caledonia ahead in the 65th minute and Devorn Jorsling added an insurance in the 86th minute.
The match was Caledonia’s first in more than a month, since a 2-1 win over Barracuda FC in the second round of the CFU club championship. The loss was a fifth in a row for Antigua and third in five days.
In the second match, Rennie Britto scored a goal in each half to lead W Connection past Puerto Rico.
Britto’s cousin, Jerrel Britto, added a goal in the second half to increase the lead to 2-0. Andrei Pacheco completed the scoring. Second-half substitute Joshua Hansen tallied a consolation goal in the 76th minute six minutes after entering the game, for the Islanders.
Categories: Antigua and Barbuda, Caribbean, Champions League, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago
Tags: Antigua Barracuda FC, Caldeonia AIA, CFU Club Championship, Chivas de Guadaljara, CONCACAF Champions League, LA Galaxy, Metapan, Puerto Rico Islanders, Seattle Sounders, W Connection, Xeljua
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