CARIBBEAN SPORTS ROUNDUP

By NAN Sports Editor

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 21, 2018: Here are the top stories making Caribbean sports news for the week ending, June 21, 2019:

Gold Cup Action Continues

Soccer fans in the Caribbean and North America are in for a treat this weekend as the Gold Cup competition continues.

Tonight, June 21, 2019, Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz faces El Salvador at the BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston, Texas at 7:30 p.m. EST while Honduras will face Curacao at 9:30 p.m.

On Sat. June 22, 2019, Guyana’s Jaguars face Panama at the FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio at 5:30 p.m. Est while the US takes on arch nemesis Trinidad and Tobago at 8 p.m.

Catch the action live on FS1.

The West Indies Have Four More Matches To Go

The West Indies will have to faceNew Zealand tomorrow in Manchester as the 2019 Cricket World Cup competition continues. The Windies so far have only 3 points on the table at the half-way point of the competition after three losses and one win from their four matches.

New Zealand leads the tourney with 9 points after winning all four of their matches so it will be an uphill task for the West Indies to try to win this match.

After the mammoth 7 wicket loss against Bangladesh West Indies assistant coach Roddy Estwick is urging his side to stick together and come back stronger.

“Stop looking for excuses and start finding solutions,” Estwick said.

The Windies next matches are as follows:

June 27 v India, Manchester

July 1 v Sri Lanka, Durham

July 4 v Afghanistan, Leeds

Hope Solo On The Reggae Girlz

Jamaica’s Reggae Girlz debut at the 2019 Women’s FIFA World Cup may have ended on Tuesdsay, June 18th with a goal scored, but a top former US soccer star believes the history making achievement will have a huge impact on Jamaica and soccer.

Hope Solo, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup US soccer champion, says she believes the Reggae Girlz Cinderella story will motivate the next generation of Jamaican soccer stars!

Writing on Twitter, Solo also expressed the hope that more corporate entities will help support the team.

Hue Menzies, the one-time volunteer coach of the Girlz, also expressed the hope that there will be more financial support of the team and the sport going forth.

At a post press conference, he said: “At the end of the day we have to be doing this more often, because we have the tools, we have the components, and the natural athletes to do this. We just have to do it as a country, as a nation and invest in football.”

Cuban Defection

Cuba mid-fielder Yasmani Lopez has defected in Los Angeles after playing in the first game of the CONCACAF Gold Cup last Saturday night against Mexico.

“The team, as everyone now knows, did not arrive at the Gold Cup with the full delegation and it is true that our No. 4 midfielder Yasmani Lopez abandoned the team on Saturday night,” coach Raul Mederos confirmed Wednesday ahead of the match with Martinique.

Cuba went on to lose 0-3 against Martinique on Wednesday night.

Jamaica National Championships

The 2019 Jamaica National Championships concludes on Sunday, June 23 at the National Stadium.  More than 70 entries will line up in Kingston this weekend chasing one of the three spots in the 100-m for the World Championships, which take place in Doha, Qatar this year from September 28th to October 6th.

While Olympic champions Elaine Thompson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce look set to keep Jamaica in the medals hunt in the women’s short sprints, the same cannot be said for the men.

So far Yohan Blake has the fastest 100-m time of any Jamaican this season, clocking 9.98sec in Florida in May. Other hopefuls include US college athlete Andre Ewers, Purdue University senior Waseem Williams as well as Raheem Chambers.