Digicel Pro League champion bmobile Joe Public will go in search of its first win in the Concacaf Champions League when it faces Columbus Crew tonight. Joe Public, since its debut in the competition in 2008, has not made it out of the group stages. Later, though, it will look to change that in its Group B match at the Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio from 8 pm. Currently, Mexico's Santos tops the group with maximum six points from its two matches followed by Crew with three and Guatemala's Municipal and Joe Public, with a point each.
The Eastern Lions were hammered 5-2 at home by Santos in their first group match before eking out a 1-1 draw away to Municipal with winger Micah Lewis scoring a 90th minute equaliser. Crew on the otherhand defeated Municipal 1-0 at home but then suffered a similar 1-0 loss away to Santos. But for today's encounter, Joe Public coach Derek King will only have 16 players available due to suspensions and visa problems. The quartet of Kareem Young, Andre Toussaint, Andel Noray and Devon Jamerson, who is on loan from Ma Pau missed, the trip due to visa problems while defenders Jevon Morris and Jason Springer are both suspended.
Despite the absence of the six players, King said he thinks his team has enough quality to come away with a positive result against Crew.
"Coming off the draw in the previous match with Municipal in Guatemala the guys gained some confidence and hopefully they will build on it when we come up against the Crew. "We will be missing some key players, so this will be a good time for some of the younger guys to step up and grab the opportunity. "Based on what we have seen in the group we know that we need to keep better possession of the ball against Crew, " added King. "Coming into the competition, we knew that if we wanted to qualify for the knockout stage we needed to get a win on the road and this is a great chance for us to get a win so we have to go for victory."
King will have the availability of six members of the Soca Warriors, who were involved in international friendly matches against Panama and Belize last week. They include Marvin Phillip, Makan Hislop, Carlyle Mitchell, Trent Noel, Kerry Baptiste and Hayden Tinto. The group journeyed from Belize on Sunday to join up with the rest of the team in Columbus. Making their second straight Champions League appearance, the Crew was the only team from Major League Soccer (MLS) to advance past the group stage in 2009-2010.
Led by veterans such as Argentine midfielder Guillermo Barros Schelotto and former US national defender Frankie Hejduk, the squad also boasts US internationals Chad Marshall and Robbie Rogers and will no doubt fancy its chances of getting past Joe Public. Crew were hammered 3-1 by LA Galaxy on Saturday night in a US MLS match, but still lead the Eastern Conference standings with 44 points from 24 matches, four more than the New York Red Bulls.