The USVI enjoyed the better of the first half but were unable to convert the opportunities that came their way, with Brittany Peters making saves to deny Zola Kaza, Zalitu Kaza Amlac and Ariel Stoltz.

The local team’s defense was also in a frugal mood and was well marshaled by Kia Foreman. Kezia Gumbs and Tashira Bascombe also put in some telling challenges, but with playmaker Ebony Fahie forced deep to help out the USVI through Kaza Amlac were able to control midfield and keep the BVI to just the occasional threatening break down the flanks.

The USVI Girls continued to press after the break and Kaza struck in the 68th minute, but not before Sapphire Flax should have put the home side one nil up.

Almost every player came to a standstill expecting the referee to halt play for an infringement, but Flax reacted to the shouts from the bench to continue and she burst through on the USVI’s goal. Savanah McFarlane seemed similarly rooted to the spot as the rest of her team, but just as Flax steadied herself to shoot, the ball bobbled and her effort went high and wide.

Although their heads never dropped, the miss seemed to take the wind out of their sails and the USVI mounted attack after attack, taking full advantage of some tiring BVI legs.

Kyra Ali and Keliene Smith were doing all they could to win the midfield battles on the BVI left, but a quick interchange of play between the USVI number 9 and 10 saw Kaza burst through, evade Foreman, Smith and Gumbs before calmly slotting the ball past Peters for what turned out to be the game winner.

Troubling for Coach Vincent Samuel ahead of tonight’s (March 11, 2012) return fixture will be the injuries sustained by Ebony Fahie and Kia Foreman, both of who are expected to play. Perhaps more of a long term concern, though, will be how his team tired during the second half whilst the USVI girls still seemed full of running.

Tactically Samuel will need to come up with a way to “boss” the midfield and rest the initative from Kaza Amlac who looked a very skillful player on the ball and was at the centre of all things good for the USVI.

With Ebony Fahie playing deep, the gap in midfield became too big for the BVI to have any effective link up play with the forwards and that too will need to be addressed for game 2.