St Kitts & Nevis qualified for the Gold Cup by beating French Guiana on penalties following a 1-1 draw. St Kitts & Nevis is a tiny island nation in the Caribbean with a population of 47,606 people. This is their first time qualifying for the Gold Cup. Their squad is a mixture of domestic players and UK-based diaspora players.
Ratings:
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Tiquanny Williams
Player profile:
- Nationality: St Kitts & Nevis
- Age: 21
- Date of Birth: 10/09/2001
- Current Club: Old Road Jets
- Career: Ovarense
- Position: Winger
- Preferred foot: Left
Tiquanny Williams played as a winger for St Kitts and Nevis in this match and was, in my opinion, their best player by some margin. Williams is a very technically strong player, in most respects. His first touch is strong. I liked that he was able to react to difficult bounces or hard passes and still keep the ball under control. He is also a strong dribbler with a lot of flair. Is able to cut inside and create chances for himself and others. He doesn’t just shoot at the first sight of goal, which is a common weakness at low levels of football, but instead uses speed and dribbling to get to better positions.
He also showed reasonably good vision to combine with teammates and set them up in transition moments. But there are elements that undercut some of his strengths. Firstly, he is not very strong on the ball. He goes down extremely easily under the slightest bit of contact. Sometimes this allows him to win fouls but there were also a lot of times when he was left laying on the field and French Guiana was carrying the ball back the other way. He is also extremely reluctant to use his right foot. This undercuts his strong dribbling because it makes him predictable. If he’s dribbling at you from the right wing you can be pretty sure he is going to cut inside. There was one moment that really stood out to me. Williams had managed to recover the ball in French Guiana’s 3rd, and had space to run into, but took so long transferring the ball from his right to his left that the moment was lost. He is pretty effective with his one foot but this sort of thing is going to put a cap on how good he can become. Williams is very hard-working defensively. He made a number of defensive interventions through tracking back.
Rating – A1
Williams has recently returned to St Kitts and Nevis after a spell in Portugal’s lower tiers. Finding information on his time there is a challenge. But based on what I have seen of him I think he is capable of playing at a much higher level than the SKN league. I think MLS Next Pro would be a great next step for him. I think he would be a top player at that level and would put himself in the shop window for a bigger move, whether that’s to MLS or elsewhere.
Malique Roberts
Player profile:
- Nationality: St Kitts & Nevis
- Age: 21
- Date of Birth: 01/08/2001
- Current club: Canyon Rockets
- Career: Conaree F.C
- Position: Right-back
- Preferred foot: Right
Ok, what were the odds that an Island Nation with less than 50,000 people was going to have two really good U-23 players in its domestic league? Roberts has a few redeeming qualities but I do not see much of a future for him in the professional game. His main problem is that he is not very good with the ball. He plays very conservatively, usually choosing to recycle possession. But when he does try to go forward he takes too long to make decisions. His one attempted cross left a lot to be desired.
He is a fairly aggressive defender and reasonably good at 1v1 defending. So he can be an effective ball-winner at times. But he is also a little slow to react to situations unfolding. He also struggled a bit with physical battles. Opponents were able to knock him around when the ball was crossed to the back post or when holding the ball up against him. He did show the ability to deliver a decent long throw which is a nice addition but not enough to redeem his chances at a move abroad overall.
Rating – B1
He is not that good but I imagine at the level of the SKNFA Premier League he is a strong player.