Nigel Si­mon

Dig­i­cel T&T Pro League cham­pi­ons, De­fence Force, left here yes­ter­day for Guyana where it will come up against Hait­ian cham­pi­on, Tem­pete, in one of two semi­fi­nals when the Caribbean Foot­ball Union Club Cham­pi­onship re­sumes to­mor­row. The meet­ing be­tween De­fence Force and Tem­pete, the neme­sis of the oth­er T&T club Cale­do­nia in the quar­ter­fi­nal round, will be the first of a dou­ble-head­er at the Guyana Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Prov­i­dence, from 6 pm. In the oth­er semi­fi­nal two hours lat­er, CFU club ti­tle hold­ers, Puer­to Ri­co Is­landers tack­le Guyana Su­per League win­ners' Al­pha Unit­ed. The win­ner of the semi­fi­nals will meet in the fi­nal on Fri­day at the same venue and along with the third place fin­ish­er will qual­i­fy for the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons League.

The Ross Rus­sell-coached De­fence Force, nick­named the Teteron Boys, have won the CFU club ti­tle twice in team his­to­ry, 1985 and 1987, while they al­so cap­tured the Con­ca­caf Cham­pi­ons League crown in 1997. De­fence Force reached the last-four of the com­pe­ti­tion af­ter it breezed through the ear­li­er rounds of qual­i­fi­ca­tion. In the first round home-and-away se­ries, De­fence Force bat­tled to a 1–1 draw on the road to Bermu­dan club, Dandy Town Hor­nets be­fore they cruised to a 3–0 win at home to com­plete a 4–1 ag­gre­gate tri­umph. Next up for the Teteron Boys was a sec­ond round clash with Guyana's Mile­rock and the lat­ter proved no match for the T&T cham­pi­ons, and were swept aside 4–0 and 3–0 in the two match­es for a 7-0 ag­gre­gate score. Mile­rock had up­staged Suri­name's In­ter Mo­en­go­tapoe on away goals rule af­ter a 2–2 se­ries dead­lock.

In­ter won the first match 1–0 on the road, but was then beat­en by Mile­rock 2–1 at home. Go­ing in­to the semi­fi­nal, Rus­sell and his troops will be aware of the threat that Tem­pete posed to his op­po­nents. This af­ter he was present at the Lar­ry Gomes Sta­di­um, Mal­abar on April 22 for its 1–0 win over Pro-League run­ner-up, Cale­do­nia AIA, cour­tesy an own-goal from Akim Arm­strong. Cale­do­nia did man­age to re­verse the score­line in the re­turn match in St Marc, Haiti, thanks to Arm­strong, to even the tie at 1–1 and send the match in­to penal­ty-kicks where the Mor­vant-based club bowed out 3–2.The Ja­maal Shabazz-coached Cale­do­nia had dis­patched St Kitts/Nevis club, New­town Unit­ed 1–0 and 5–0 in the open­ing round.