A few weeks ago, this column focused on the U.S national team playing a young Haitian squad - which essentially was a mixture of their U-17 and U-20 team - in two lopsided victories in Detroit and Birmingham.
Haiti - a late substitute for Australia - lost the matches 5-0 and 8-0 respectively and had very few opportunities in attack. Haiti's national team coach, Polish-American Shek Borkowski, told tribalfootball.com this week that; “For the most people it's difficult to understand that, for a country like Haiti to play a country like the U.S. on the women's side, it's such a mismatch financially, human resources and in so many ways; for us to lose the first game 5-0 and then 8-0, a neutral looks at it and says, 'Why is the U.S. playing this game?, Haiti is going to lose.'
"For us it was about 180 minutes of playing the World Champions. My girls have never played against that level of opponents and it showed them what it takes to compete at that level. The way the U.S. players move together, play together, the pace of their passes, it opens up their eyes to another level that they have never experienced. Most are pretty hungry now—they enjoyed the process and the travel—and they now want to do it all the time and not just in Haiti. We want to play the best teams in the world and enjoy it."
Besides the two matches with the Americans in September, Haiti lost 1-0 to the Republic of Ireland earlier this year in Miami.
Borkowski's “Power of Youth" strategy has paid off quickly when, on October 23, Haiti won the Caribbean Football Union's U-20 Championships at home in Port-Au-Prince, defeating Jamaica's Reggae Girlz 2-0 in the final. The third place game would decide who accompanied the two finalists to the CONCACAF regional tournament next month in Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago outlasted Puerto Rico in penalties after a 1-1 tie in regulation and overtime to book the last spot.
Borkowski was pleased with the title and felt that Haiti dominated the tournament, despite a shocking 3-0 group round defeat to Puerto Rico. Borkowski explained that the entire team and coaching staff had food poisoning before the match and all the players were struggling. Despite that, Haiti scored after 15 minutes but the goal was disallowed for offside and then Puerto Rico scored shortly thereafter when the forward was two yards offside, but the goal stood. Puerto Rico then bunkered down and scored two late counter-attacking goals as the Haitians tried to fight back. An 8-0 defeat of Bermuda sent Haiti on to the semifinals where they defeated Trinidad and Tobago 2-0 and then captured the title with the same scoreline over Jamaica. The line-up for the CONCACAF U-20 Regional Tournament next month in Honduras, with the top three advancing to next year's U-20 WWC in Papua New Guinea is as follows:
Canada
Haiti
Honduras
Jamaica
Mexico
Panama
Trinidad & Tobago
United States
Borkowski said that: “We are going to Honduras, hopeful that we can advance out of our group and make the last four," which at that point, then they control their fate to be among the three CONCACAF finalists for the U-20 World Cup in Papua New Guinea. Borkowski is optimistic about his team's chances next month, despite the fact that only two Haitian teams - both men's sides - have ever made a FIFA Finals (the men's side in 1974 and the U-17 team in 2008).
He explained the strengths of his U-20 group: “We have a pretty talented group of players - we have speed at every position, very good levels of fitness, players who can create opportunities for themselves and others. We're a pretty attractive team to watch, good ball movement, we attack with speed, we get people behind the ball and defend with tenacity."
Borkowski continued: “To make the semifinals, we give ourselves a shot; two games to qualify for the World Cup….We can prove to people - if we are successful next month - we prove to a lot of people including in Haiti that we took the right path and by training in the US [for six months a year]; we're giving them experiences that they wouldn't get in Haiti."
Borkowski and his staff also have the CFU finals for the U-17 age group coming in Puerto Rico in early November, which if successful, would lead to CONCACAF Finals in Grenada in March 2016 and a chance at the U-17 FIFA World Cup later in the year in Jordan. Again, three teams advance out of both the CFU and CONCACAF events.
Borkowski's belief in the youth is visionary and, from his perspective, has allowed his U-20's to advance from the fourth best in the Caribbean region (two years ago at the U-17 tournament - and seventh at the CONCACAF champions) to be title-winners. As the reigning U-15 regional champions, Haiti hopes to show the same improvement in Puerto Rico.
Borkowski said: “This win last week was huge as it was the first time that a [Haitian] women's team has won a CFU championship at any level; everyone is now ecstatic. If we can replicate it next month for the U-17's, we would basically have for the first time in CFU the champion of U-15, U-17 and U-20 from the same country."
Borkowski sees a bright future ahead for his youthful national team pool, adding: “If the Haitian government and federation invest even small resources in this U-17 and U-20 group, who knows what they can accomplish in 8 years?"
Borkowski also has to convince parents to allow his players to pursue their dreams; many women are pressured to work, get married or stay home and help raise their siblings when they reach their early twenties.
Overall he's pleased with the progress made since he started the job in 2012: “It's moving in the right direction. It's a slow process but we are getting there. Your future success as a country is based on the success of your youth players."
Borkowski's belief in building a national team pool from the younger age groups is paying off and a model for other developing countries.