The National Selection man, under 17 (U17) knew his "baptism of fire" this weekend at a dual match against the Dominican Republic to prepare for the playoff championship under 17 years.

The first meeting took place on Friday 17 and the second yesterday, Sunday at 9:00 morning at the Football Park "Proyecto Goal" of San Cristobal in the Dominican Republic. These two friendly matches against the selection of the republic neighboring were very much expected, the players from the Dominican Republic in youth competitions have always been good challengers for young Haitians. Recall that despite the ongoing preparation for eight months and many interesting games against good teams of clubs D1 and D2, our young people selected have no international experience.

If the lack of international experience was a reality, the first game of friday won by Haiti (4-1) surprised the Dominicans. 3 goals were scored by Johnley Chery and one by Benchi Estama. A match led from start to finish by the Haitians. A crushing defeat for the Dominicans.

Sunday's match was played in front a small audience consisting mainly of a group of arbitrators participating in an internship of FIFA.

The Dominicans were identified and decided to erase the heavy defeat (1-4) suffered the day before. Despite a steady pace and aggressiveness of the game Dominican,the Haitian team did not let itself impress, wanting, as in the previous match, to finish quickly. Probably too confident in that second match, our players left in the first period, openings in which their opponents have rushed to score the first goal (1-0).

at the half-time, the Dominican Republic carried out 1 - 0

The Dominicans at the beginning of the second half scored a second goal against Haiti (2-0). The Haitian team quickly realized that the game had changed and it was time to forget the euphoria of the first victory for their collective return.

During this second period, Haitians, driven by the desire to win, have confined the opposing team in their own half. Although very combative and offers a beautiful game, the Dominican players ended up yielding vis-a-vis the high rhythm and to the constant pressure imposed by the Haitian team, who accomplished the feat of going up the score (2-1), then (2-2), followed by a (3-2) to finally win the match (4-2) leaving the Dominicans on a severe [and double] defeat.

The 4 goals were scored by Haitian Jean Voltaire Ismaël (1-2), Estama Benchi (2-2), Georges Kerlens (3-2) and Estama Benchi (4-2).

The football team (U17) will return to Haiti on Monday.

See also:

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1192-haiti-football-u17-preparatorymatches-to-the-playoffs.html