Waterhouse’s win over Panama club a confidence booster
THE Waterhouse FC management staff has hailed last Thursday’s win away to Panama outfit Tauro FC in Group 4 of the CONCACAF Champions League as a confidence booster ahead of their trip to DC United later this month.
The 2-1 win for the Jamaican club was set up after Romario Campbell and Vicent Earle shot them to a two-nil advantage in the first half.
With 26 minutes to go, defender Upston Edwards was ejected from the game after a second booking, and despite conceding a late Jair Renteria goal, Waterhouse held on for the famous victory.
“It was a fantastic win. Knowing the history of Tauro where they are a powerhouse in Panama. Knowing that Waterhouse could go there and dominate the game and come out with three points,” said Waterhouse manager Keith Sailsman.
DC United, the United States Major League Soccer (MLS) team, will host Waterhouse at the RFK Stadium in Washington on August 20.
Sailsman, who said Waterhouse are tentatively set to leave for Washington on August 18, added that they will be “doing some background checks” to assess the MLS club before the teams meet.
Waterhouse head coach Anthony Patrick, who has hardly put a foot wrong since taking up the job in January of this year, was also ecstatic after getting off to a winning start in the tournament.
But he admitted that getting even a point away to highly-fancied DC will be a “very tough” challenge.
“We played with discipline and showed what we can achieve. We were thinking about getting something out of the (Tauro) game, but the players were good and the management staff supported. It boiled down to the players because they fought hard even when we were down to 10 men and came under a lot of pressure.
“The DC game will be a very tough one. It would be great if we can get the three points, but if we can get one, we would be happy,” Patrick told the Jamaica Observer.
Waterhouse will host Tauro and DC at the National Stadium on August 28 and September 16, respectively.
Only the top team in each of the eight groups will advance to the quarter-final stage. No Jamaican club has ever progressed from the group phase.
