News

Sixteen active NASL players participated in international matches this past week. Five featured for Guyana who is currently competing in the third round of CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying. 

Guyana 

Nick Millington (Carolina RailHawks); Chris Nurse, Gregory Richardson (Puerto Rico Islanders); Carl Cort, JP Rodrigues (Tampa Bay Rowdies) 

The Guyana national team continued their World Cup qualifying campaign with a pair of matches against El Salvador. The Golden Jaguars came from behind on two occasions to earn a hard-fought 2-2 draw in El Salvador on Friday, September 7, but were defeated by El Salvador in the return match on home soil, by three goals to two.  

Carolina RailHawks first-year professional Nick Millington started his first World Cup Qualifier on Friday, playing 90 minutes to help Guyana earn their first point in qualifying in the 2-2 draw. Puerto Rico Islanders duo Chris Nurse and Gregory Richardson played the full match, with Richardson providing the assists on both goals. Tampa Bay Rowdies defender JP Rodrigues played the entire match, while teammate Carl Cort had to settle for a spot on the bench.

Just four days later, Guyana hosted El Salvador. Richardson opened the scoring in the first minute, and Islanders’ teammate Nurse scored the equalizer after Guyana went down 2-1. Rodrigues and Millington were taken off in the second half, while Cort started and played the full 90 in the eventual 3-2 loss.

Guyana sit bottom of Group B with one point from the first four matches. The country hosts group-winners Mexico on October 12, before heading to Costa Rica for the final qualifying match on October 16.

Puerto Rico

Noah Delgado, John Hansen, Joseph Marrero, Richard Martinez, Andres Perez, Hector Ramos, Alexis Rivera, Anthony Vazquez, Marco Velez and Tyler Wilson (all Puerto Rico Islanders); John Krause (Carolina RailHawks)

Elsewhere, eleven NASL players were called up by Puerto Rico to participate in the 2012 Caribbean Championship. El Huracán Azul started the tournament with a 2-1 win against Bermuda, Hector Ramos scoring the winner deep into stoppage time. Islanders’ teammate Joseph Marrero opened the scoring.

What followed was a 9-0 triumph over minnows San Martin. Current NASL players accounted for seven of the nine goals: Ramos scored four times; Marrero added another two, and Noah Delgado scored one.

Puerto Rico takes on Haiti in their next match.