Puerto Rico FC Advances To Caribbean Club Championship

Photo credit: Puerto Rico FC

Puerto Rico FC, the NASL’s newest team, will be the first club since 2012 to carry the league banner into international competition.

On Wednesday night, the club owned by Carmelo Anthony dispatched its local rival Bayamón FC, 1-0, on a penalty kick goal from Cristiano Dias, at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium to complete a 4-0 aggregate victory in the semifinals of the Puerto Rican Football Federation’s Luis Villarejo Cup. Puerto Rico FC will now host Criollos de Caguas FC in the one-game final on Sunday, Nov. 20. Both teams have earned berths in the regional Caribbean Football Union Club Championship, which provides a pathway to the CONCACAF Champions League.

“This is massively important, it’s a massive thing,” Puerto Rico FCcoach Adrian Whitbread told NASL.com the morning after his team’s win in the second leg. “It’s really no different than a team in Europe from one of the top four leagues qualifying for the Champions League. We could end up drawing a team from Mexico or MLS, games here at home. Our supporters love those games and it presents an exciting period for the club.”

Puerto Rico FC will be the first NASL club to engage in such an international competition since the Puerto Rico Islanders did so in 2012. The Islanders, then coached by Colin Clarke, made it all the way to the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions League in 2008-09 before being eliminated by Mexico’s Cruz Azul in a penalty-kick shootout. The Islanders won the CFU tournament in 2010 and 2011. Club teams from Jamaica have dominated the CFU competition, which began in 1997, winning 11 times.

Starting play in the Fall Season, Puerto Rico FC hit the ground running, finishing respectably in eighth place with a 5W-9D-8L record. The club earned the first win in its history in its fifth league match, went 10 games without a win (a streak that included six draws) before embarking on a four-game streak without a loss (three victories) and losing two more before closing out the year with a 2-1 win against Carolina.

Asked if he was pleased with the results and performance of the team in the Fall Season, Whitbread said “once I sit back and review things, I would say yes.”

“In my opinion, we had a great start, but it’s only a start,” Whitbread said. “We know we need to improve, but there were only two or three games where I thought we didn’t deserve to get anything. We were competitive in all games.”

Whitbread said that the club hopes to host the CFU Club Championship’s first group stage at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium, though the schedule is still to be determined. The team will have five to six weeks off before reconvening early in the new year with the start of the preliminary group stage in the CFU Club Championship expected in late January or early February, the club will have to dive into training no later than mid-January.

Beforehand, Whitbread will soon be heading to Bradenton, Fla., in early December to check out players in an open tryout then travel to England and Europe for a series of player combines.

“We’ve got to move forward and keep on going,” he said.