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H'View vs DC United flashback
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
On Sunday, March 16, 2005, MLS giant DC United were in Kingston, Jamaica, for the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-final game against Caribbean Club champions Harbour View.
DC United arrived at the Harbour View Stadium with a 2-1 lead in the home-and-away series, and were heavily favoured to move on to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Harbour View qualified for the 2005 Champions Cup by winning the Caribbean Club Championship in 2004 in a classic local derby with Jamaica club champions Tivoli Gardens.
It was the first time in Jamaica's football history that the Caribbean Club Championship final was held in Jamaica, and also the first time two local teams had reached the final, and Harbour View was the first Jamaican club to be crowned Caribbean Club champions in the history of the competition.
Harbour View FC celebrates its 34th anniversary today, but next Wednesday the club engages DC United in the first leg of this year's CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-finals at 7:00 pm at the Harbour View Stadium.
The first leg of the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-finals was held at the Maryland Soccerplex on a very cold Sunday night, March 9. Harbour View's general manager Clyde Jureidini recalled that "the temperature was 15 degrees Fahrenheit in Washington, the field was scraped of snow just three hours before the game as it was completely covered, and was rock-hard so that even DC United did not want to play. Some Harbour View players had nosebleeds".
Harbour View fell behind 0-1 early on a fifth-minute goal by Alecko Eskandarian. In the 23rd minute, the estimated 3,825 wild DC United fans were silenced by a fine solo effort by the then relatively unknown Luton Shelton, who levelled the score at 1-1. Vin Blaine, the manager of Harbour View at the time, remembered that "a long ball was played and Shelton took off; a defender was a step ahead, and the goalkeeper made the critical error of leaving his goal. Shelton did the rest by stealing the ball and scoring".
However, an away Harbour View upset win was not to be as DC United's Joshua Gros scored the game winner in the 64th minute to give the MLS side a 2-1 aggregate lead heading for Kingston. "I was very optimistic that we could have defeated DC United and advanced to the semi-finals. It was so disappointing after the loss in Maryland on what must have been the coldest day in America," Harbour View's coach, Donovan Hayles reflected.
The crucial second-leg was televised live world-wide by FoxSports World, and drew a capacity partisan crowd to the Harbour View Stadium. The sea of yellow that filled the seats in support of the 'Stars of the East' gave the Caribbean Club champions a distinct advantage. To add fuel to the fire, at the stroke of half-time, midfielder Donald Stewart rose high above the DC United defence to head home a well-flighted Jermaine Hue free-kick to put Harbour View ahead at the half, and to level the series at 2-2. "After I scored, I felt that we had a good chance to beat DC United. It was very disappointing when we lost," Stewart lamented.
The newspaper reports described the game as "a delightful exhibition of professional football". Nevertheless, in the second half, DC United adjusted to score two unanswered goals by Jamil Walker in the 74th minute, and by Jaime Moreno in the 77th minute, to take the game 2-1 and the series 4-2 on aggregate, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Peter Nowak, the head coach of DC United, summed it up by saying: "We might not have played the best, but we managed to win."
The large exposure gained from the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup campaign paid huge dividends for Harbour View, the players, and contributed greatly to the further development of Jamaican football. Many of the players received professional contracts soon after in the MLS, Russia, Sweden, and also in England. There are some survivors from that Harbour View 2005 squad who are on the HVFC squad that are to face DC United in the 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup next Wednesday at the Harbour View Stadium, and in the second leg on March 18 at the RFK Stadium in Washington DC.
The Harbour View survivors are Christopher Harvey, Jermaine Taylor, Marcelino Blackburn, Robert Scarlett, Donald Stewart, Lovel Palmer, Jermaine Hue, and Clifton Waugh. Coach Donovan Hayles had long been replaced by Lenworth Hyde, and manager Vin Blaine by Annmarie Massey.
For DC United, Nowak is gone and Tom Soehn is the new man in charge, along with fellow survivor, Mark Simpson, his assistant. Of the DC United players, Jaime Moreno, Bryan Namoff, Ben Olsen, Clyde Simms, and Jamil Walker are still around. Ironically, a Trinidadian Referee, Neal Brizan, officiated in the March 16, 2005 second leg at the Compound, and now a trio of Trinidadians will handle the first leg. The game officials from Trinidad are referee Phillip Jordan, and he will be assisted by Joseph Taylor, and Michael Ragoonath. The fourth official is Courtney Campbell of Jamaica.
Tuesday, March 04, 2008
On Sunday, March 16, 2005, MLS giant DC United were in Kingston, Jamaica, for the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-final game against Caribbean Club champions Harbour View.
DC United arrived at the Harbour View Stadium with a 2-1 lead in the home-and-away series, and were heavily favoured to move on to the semi-finals of the tournament.
Harbour View qualified for the 2005 Champions Cup by winning the Caribbean Club Championship in 2004 in a classic local derby with Jamaica club champions Tivoli Gardens.
It was the first time in Jamaica's football history that the Caribbean Club Championship final was held in Jamaica, and also the first time two local teams had reached the final, and Harbour View was the first Jamaican club to be crowned Caribbean Club champions in the history of the competition.
Harbour View FC celebrates its 34th anniversary today, but next Wednesday the club engages DC United in the first leg of this year's CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-finals at 7:00 pm at the Harbour View Stadium.
The first leg of the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-finals was held at the Maryland Soccerplex on a very cold Sunday night, March 9. Harbour View's general manager Clyde Jureidini recalled that "the temperature was 15 degrees Fahrenheit in Washington, the field was scraped of snow just three hours before the game as it was completely covered, and was rock-hard so that even DC United did not want to play. Some Harbour View players had nosebleeds".
Harbour View fell behind 0-1 early on a fifth-minute goal by Alecko Eskandarian. In the 23rd minute, the estimated 3,825 wild DC United fans were silenced by a fine solo effort by the then relatively unknown Luton Shelton, who levelled the score at 1-1. Vin Blaine, the manager of Harbour View at the time, remembered that "a long ball was played and Shelton took off; a defender was a step ahead, and the goalkeeper made the critical error of leaving his goal. Shelton did the rest by stealing the ball and scoring".
However, an away Harbour View upset win was not to be as DC United's Joshua Gros scored the game winner in the 64th minute to give the MLS side a 2-1 aggregate lead heading for Kingston. "I was very optimistic that we could have defeated DC United and advanced to the semi-finals. It was so disappointing after the loss in Maryland on what must have been the coldest day in America," Harbour View's coach, Donovan Hayles reflected.
The crucial second-leg was televised live world-wide by FoxSports World, and drew a capacity partisan crowd to the Harbour View Stadium. The sea of yellow that filled the seats in support of the 'Stars of the East' gave the Caribbean Club champions a distinct advantage. To add fuel to the fire, at the stroke of half-time, midfielder Donald Stewart rose high above the DC United defence to head home a well-flighted Jermaine Hue free-kick to put Harbour View ahead at the half, and to level the series at 2-2. "After I scored, I felt that we had a good chance to beat DC United. It was very disappointing when we lost," Stewart lamented.
The newspaper reports described the game as "a delightful exhibition of professional football". Nevertheless, in the second half, DC United adjusted to score two unanswered goals by Jamil Walker in the 74th minute, and by Jaime Moreno in the 77th minute, to take the game 2-1 and the series 4-2 on aggregate, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Peter Nowak, the head coach of DC United, summed it up by saying: "We might not have played the best, but we managed to win."
The large exposure gained from the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup campaign paid huge dividends for Harbour View, the players, and contributed greatly to the further development of Jamaican football. Many of the players received professional contracts soon after in the MLS, Russia, Sweden, and also in England. There are some survivors from that Harbour View 2005 squad who are on the HVFC squad that are to face DC United in the 2008 CONCACAF Champions Cup next Wednesday at the Harbour View Stadium, and in the second leg on March 18 at the RFK Stadium in Washington DC.
The Harbour View survivors are Christopher Harvey, Jermaine Taylor, Marcelino Blackburn, Robert Scarlett, Donald Stewart, Lovel Palmer, Jermaine Hue, and Clifton Waugh. Coach Donovan Hayles had long been replaced by Lenworth Hyde, and manager Vin Blaine by Annmarie Massey.
For DC United, Nowak is gone and Tom Soehn is the new man in charge, along with fellow survivor, Mark Simpson, his assistant. Of the DC United players, Jaime Moreno, Bryan Namoff, Ben Olsen, Clyde Simms, and Jamil Walker are still around. Ironically, a Trinidadian Referee, Neal Brizan, officiated in the March 16, 2005 second leg at the Compound, and now a trio of Trinidadians will handle the first leg. The game officials from Trinidad are referee Phillip Jordan, and he will be assisted by Joseph Taylor, and Michael Ragoonath. The fourth official is Courtney Campbell of Jamaica.