De­fence Force FC, the T&T Pre­mier Foot­ball League (TTPFL) Tier I cham­pi­ons, will go af­ter their sec­ond win from as many match­es in this year’s Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup when they face Cav­a­lier FC, the Ja­maica Wray & Nephew Pre­mier League cham­pi­ons, in their Group B clash at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Kingston, Ja­maica, from 8 pm Wednes­day night.

De­fend­ing cham­pi­ons Cav­a­lier FC is cur­rent­ly on a three-match win­less streak in the tour­na­ment, their worst run since the 2023 fi­nal against SV Robin­hood. The Ja­maican club drew 1-1 with Ju­ven­tus des Cayes with a goal from Shamar Wat­son in its most re­cent en­counter.

De­fence Force FC earned a 1-nil win over Ju­ven­tus de Cayes of Haiti on a sec­ond-half goal from Kevin Moli­no on Au­gust 26, their last com­pet­i­tive match.

It will be the sec­ond-ever meet­ing be­tween the two sides, with the first end­ing in a 1-1 draw in 2023 at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain.

For Cav­a­lier, this will be their fourth matchup against clubs from T&T, but they will en­ter tonight’s en­counter on the back of a 2-1 loss to ri­vals Mount Pleas­ant in the JPL last Sun­day, their sec­ond de­feat in four match­es to sit in the ninth spot on the 14-club stand­ings with four points, the same as three oth­er clubs.

In ad­di­tion to the draw with De­fence Force, they de­feat­ed AC Port-of-Spain 2-1 on Au­gust 31, 2023, while their most re­cent match against a T&T club was a 4-1 win over Po­lice FC.

For De­fence Force, this will be their sec­ond match ever against a Ja­maican club in the Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup, the first be­ing the afore­men­tioned 1-1 draw with Cav­a­lier FC.

De­fence Force last faced a Ja­maican club in of­fi­cial com­pe­ti­tion back in the 2014 CFU Club Cham­pi­onship, when they de­feat­ed Har­bour View 2-0 in Kingston on March 25 dur­ing Group Three of the First Round, thanks to a brace from De­vorn Jorsling, now the head coach.

In their last out­ing be­fore the in­ter­na­tion­al win­dow, Cav­a­lier FC drew 1-1 with Ju­ven­tus des Cayes and are cur­rent­ly on a two-match los­ing streak af­ter a nar­row 1-0 loss to Wa­ter­house in the JPL as well, back on Sep­tem­ber 8.

The 35-year-old Moli­no, the reign­ing TTPFL Tier I “Play­er of the Year”, is once again ex­pect­ed to lead his team’s at­tack tonight along with the re­turn­ing Isa­iah “Bon­go” Lea­cock and the se­nior na­tion­al team trio of de­fend­er Isa­iah Gar­cia, goal­keep­er Jabari St Hillaire and winger Kai­him Thomas.

Speak­ing ahead of to­day’s en­counter, a con­fi­dent Jorsling said his team was ready and fo­cused on the job and task at hand.

He added, “We are here to get a pos­i­tive re­sult, whether it be a draw or a win.

“We have as­pi­ra­tions of win­ning this tour­na­ment and if we want to do so, these are places where you need to come to and get pos­i­tive re­sults.”

The De­fence Force coach al­so con­firmed that de­fend­er Je­lani Pe­ters will miss the match through in­jury, along with strik­er Shack­iel Hen­ry, who did not trav­el due to per­son­al rea­sons.

Fol­low­ing the match against Cav­a­lier FC, De­fence Force, who won the Caribbean Con­ca­caf Club ti­tle back in 2001, will host Wey­mouth Wales on Sep­tem­ber 25 at Mu­cu­rapo at 8 pm in Week Four, be­fore end­ing round-robin play away to Cibao FC of the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic on Oc­to­ber 1 at Es­ta­dio Cibao FC, San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, from 8 pm as well.

A day lat­er, Ju­ven­tus des Cayes hosts Wey­mouth Wales FC of Bar­ba­dos at Cibao FC Sta­di­um in San­ti­a­go de los Ca­balleros, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic.

Up­com­ing Con­ca­caf Caribbean Cup match­es

Group B

Wednes­day (Sep­tem­ber 17)

Cav­a­lier FC (Ja­maica) vs De­fence Force (T&T), Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Kingston, Ja­maica 8 pm

Thurs­day (Sep­tem­ber 18)

Ju­ven­tus Des Cayes (Haiti) vs Wey­mouth Wales (Bar­ba­dos), Cibao FC Sta­di­um, Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, 8 pm.

Cur­rent Group B stand­ings

Teams P W D L F A Pts

Cibao FC 2 2 0 0 4 1 6

De­fence Force 1 1 0 0 1 0 3

Ju­ven­tus Des Cayes 2 0 1 1 1 2 1

Cav­a­lier 2 0 1 1 1 3 1

Wey­mouth Wales 1 0 0 1 1 2 0