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“Soccer Feva”: International friendly match in South Florida features Jamaica vs. Haiti

FORT LAUDERDALE – The Soccer Feva Partnership, a joint effort between Florida’s Rush Promotions Group and Jamaica’s Norbrook Entertainment Group, today announced the hosting of their annual Soccer Feva series – an international friendly soccer match between two rival countries that have strong roots in the South Florida community.

In its inaugural year, Soccer Feva has decided to entertain the strongest of such rivalries in the Caribbean with a game between Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz and Haiti’s Les Grenadiers.

The game will be played on Saturday, May 23rd at Fort Lauderdale’s Lockhart Stadium, during the highly festive Memorial Day weekend in Fort Lauderdale.

Although a strong Caribbean rivalry, both teams have not been matched against each other since 2006 and so will give a new set of players an opportunity to battle the rivalry once more.

The game will boast an array of internationally renowned players, including Ricardo ‘Bibi’ Gardner (Bolton Wanderers), Marlon King (Middleborough), Jermaine Johnson (Sheffield Wednesday), Claude Davis (Crystal Palace) and Jean Jacques-Pierre (FC Nantes).

“We expect it to be a massive game because the people of Haiti will be celebrating a special holiday period” JFF boss Horace Burrell said regarding the game. Burrell also assured that “we will have all our available overseas-based players”.

“In addition to the fact that the last encounter between these two teams packed the Orange Bowl stadium with 32,000 roaring fans, we expect a large and festive crowd for this game given the rivalry as well as the celebrations surrounding Memorial Day. The game also falls in line with the May month of celebrations for South Florida’s Haitians, said Khary Robinson, Norbrook’s Managing Director.

Hans Mullings of Rush Promotions also noted that “the game will also be a unique opportunity for the multitude of persons in the Jamaican Diaspora to see their Reggae Boyz play in Florida for the first time in quite some time.”

The anticipation surrounding the game is already brewing in the camps of both countries. As Haiti and Jamaica gear up for their Gold Cup appearances, both teams recognize this as an important tuning opportunity. Jamaica’s coach, John Barnes, will be taking a final look at his key players to ensure the best squad for regions biggest competition. Additionally, the Haitian team has brought on a new coach that has assured the most finely tuned Haitian team to take the field in some time.

Haitian agent, Miguel Trujillo, on Wednesday said his team is taking the match-up against rivals Jamaica “very seriously”. He added that in the past Jamaica have underestimated Haiti, but warned that if they do so this time around “they will be in for a surprise”.

Haiti was the second Caribbean nation to go to the FIFA World Cup in 1972, while Jamaica was the first English-speaking country to make it to the game’s big stage back in 1998. Cuba in 1938 was the first to go to the World Cup, while Trinidad and Tobago did so in 2006.

Haiti and Jamaica first played each other in 1925 and their last meeting, according to eloratings.net, was back on October 1, 2006, where the Boyz were 2-0 winners at the National Stadium in a Digicel Caribbean Cup qualifier.

Jamaica’s last friendly international was played on February 11 in London where they tied with Nigeria’s Super Eagles. They will also be playing Panama on June 7th, both games providing a chance for Coach John Barnes to finalize his squad for the CONCACAF Gold Cup which runs from July 3-26 in 13 US cities.

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