Defending champions Portmore United of Jamaica will battle Arcahaie FC of Haiti for the fourth and final spot in the semi-final round of the Flow Concacaf Caribbean Club Championship at Anthony Spaulding Sports Complex today, starting at 6:00 pm.

Both teams lost to group winner Atletico Pantoja of the Dominican Republic in their opening Group B games and now will have it all to play for in a bid to claim the final semi-final spot in the competition.

Portmore United were mauled 0-4 by Pantoja on Wednesday, while Arcahaie fell victim to two late goals as they lost 0-2 to the Dominicans on Friday.

Portmore United have had an indifferent season in the local premier league but have been rounding into form as the season has gone on. The loss to Pantoja is their first in five games in all competitions and they will be looking to rebound, says Head Coach Ricardo “Bibi” Gardner.

The former Reggae Boy was less than impressed with the start from his team in the competition.

“Definitely not the start that we would have been looking for in terms of the result, but I don’t think the result speaks to the full justice of how we performed,” he said after the loss on Wednesday.

“Unfortunately, I think we gave up some soft goals. We gave up four soft goals and at the other end we didn’t put away our chances,” he said.

Gardner refused to dwell on the poor result and is focused on getting a win today.

“But I think there are positives to take away from the game, and we have to put this behind us and look forward to the next game to get the three points,” he noted.

He lamented the failure of his players to pay attention to the details they had spoken about before the start of the game.

“We knew going into the game some of the things we needed to look at, stay with our runners, especially don’t get caught on the counter – I don’t think we did that well. But as I mentioned before, I think we played decent enough to get a better result from the game but we didn’t put away our chances and we gave up some soft goals,” Gardner lamented.

The former Bolton Wanderers star is expecting his boys to grind out the desired result on local soil and book their passage into the next round in the Dominican Republic.

“We have to put this game behind us and know that three points are what we need from the next game, and we have to go out there and try to dig that out.”

Gardner is banking on their collective experiences of the past to spur them to victory over the Haitians.

“We have the type of players here with us who know what it takes when our back is against the wall because we have shown that in the [premier league] season and we have to show that again.

“So it is something that we will be asked to do that we have done before, but we will have to go out there and perform and be at our best – individually and collectively. Our approach will be, definitely, an all out attack,” he concluded.

— Dwayne Richards