The 2023 Caribbean Championship is almost concluded. At the time of writing only the two-legged final and 3rd place matchup are still to be played. Finalists SV Robinhood of Suriname and Cavalier of Jamaica have already qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League while the Dominican Republic’s Moca F.C and Harbour View, also of Jamaica, will vie for the last Caribbean spot. Both finalists were very interesting for Target Scouting’s aim to discover high-potential players in obscure markets. Firstly, Cavalier are sort of like a Caribbean Nordsjaelland, in that they very deliberately have an extremely young squad. They have an average squad age of 21.2 and only have one player over the age of 25. Robinhood, on the other hand, is actually an amateur status team. They had to win the Carribean Shield, contested by amateur teams in the Caribbean, to even get to this tournament. They also featured a number of young players, a couple of whom are profiled here. There’s also a smattering of players from teams that were less successful. Sadly Haitian teams, including Violette who upset MLS team Austin F.C. in the last edition of the CCL, did not participate. Presumably, this was due to the current unstable political situation in the company and the difficulty of securing travel visas for their players.
Dimitrio Andro/Robinhood/AM/2003
This was my second time watching Andro, having previously seen him play for the Suriname U-20s. I once again found him extremely impressive. Andro plays as a withdrawn striker. He is very small but he makes up for this by being excellent off-the-ball movement. He is really good at receiving the ball between the lines and then either distributing the ball or going for the goal himself. He’s not necessarily the best passer but he gets in good positions to make plays so often that his overall impact is still very strong. Andro also makes a lot of runs into the box, often occupying spaces you would expect from a traditional #9. He had a ton of shots from dangerous areas, though just like at the CONCACAF U-20s he was not able to finish any of them. It is perhaps slightly concerning that he has missed so many chances in the games I have seen but with a relatively small sample size I have to believe that’s just bad luck. A barrier to a step up for Andro is that he really has to play a very specific role. He doesn’t have the right physical profile to be a striker and I think he lacks the on-the-ball ability to play deeper. As mentioned previously, his passing is a bit inconsistent and he doesn’t have a huge amount of dribbling ability. But playing off a target man, he’s dynamite. Despite some limitations, Andro is clearly good enough to play at a professional level. He’s young enough that he would be a good MLS Next Pro signing but any CONCACAF team below MLS or Liga MX that plays a two-striker system would be well advised to take a long look at him.
Shaquille Cairo/Robinhood/CF/2001
Shaquille Cairo was the star player of Robinhood’s incredible run in the tournament. Cairo, playing as a centre-forward, lodged 5 goals and an assist in 4 group stage matches and helped launch the amateur surinamese side into the knockout stage. Cairo is big and fast. He’s not astonishingly tall, standing around 6’0, but he’s hard to knock off the ball. Cairo is very good at using his frame to hold players off and post up on them. Cairo is very mobile and he likes to roam from the centre-forward position. He often receives the ball in wide areas and then cuts inside. He’s quite dangerous in the box, scoring several goals and having a number of shots from high-danger scoring areas. He’s also a threat to get in behind with his speed. Now, to go with these upsides, there are also some drawbacks. His first touch can be a little bit bouncy. Although he does get a lot of high-danger scoring chances, he also takes a lot of long-range garbage shots. Although he does pop up in high-danger scoring areas quite a lot, sometimes he doesn’t seem to have the instincts of a centre-forward. There were times when he didn’t make the most incisive runs or failed to get into the spots you’d want your centre-forward to be in. For this reason, I think perhaps he would be a winger at a higher level. Overall though, Cairo is a very obvious candidate to make the jump to professional football. At 22 he might be a tad old for MLS Next Pro. But I think he would be a really good signing for teams in Central American leagues.
Christopher Ainsworth/Cavalier/FB/2005
Christopher Ainsworth played as a left-wing-back in Cavalier’s very defensive 5-2-3 formation. He certainly has a lot of room for improvement but overall I see a bright future for him. The main thing that stands out for Ainsworth is his off-the-ball defending and his ball recovery ability. Cavalier sat in a very low block and dared opponents to break them down, which they mostly did not have the quality to do. So Ainsworth had a lot of opportunities to scoop up errant passes and then begin a counter-attack. Another effect of the low block was that he was not isolated against dribblers very often, so it was hard to gauge how good his in that situation. I will say, I sometimes felt he was a bit slow to close the ball down. In possession, there was a lot to like. Ainsworth is a good passer, able to find teammates when he is under pressure and in tight spaces. He even showed some ability to play balls in behind the opponents in transition. This really stands out in Carribean football where the quality of passing tends to be low. Ainsworth is a decent dribbler, able to get himself out of tight spots. But he’s a bit lacking in speed and directness. I think this is at least partly a function of still being very young and not having fully adjusted to the physicality of senior football yet. Ainsworth has a strong left foot and is capable of producing good deliveries. He took a lot of set pieces for Cavalier. But I would like to see him do a little bit more from open play. He tends to cross the ball from the touchline, whereas I would like to see him use his dribbling to work a better spot for himself. Ainsworth seems to be a pretty strong candidate for an MLS Next Pro contract. Although he would definitely need a couple of years of development before making the jump to MLS.
Shaniel Thomas/Cavalier/CF/2002
Shaniel Thomas exploded offensively in the group stage, racking up 8 goals and an assist in 5 matches. I reported on him a few months ago so I don’t want to retread everything I said there. But I did note in that report that Thomas was worth keeping an eye on in case he could turn his positive traits into more consistent production. So, the natural question, since he has averaged almost two goal contributions a game in this tournament, do I think he has turned a corner? Well, unfortunately, I am not 100% convinced. Two of those goals were penalties and a further three came against Golden Lion, an amateur side from Martinique. A lot of the goals were the result of the ball happening to bounce to his feet. Now, one of Thomas’s downsides when I watched him previously was that he was slow to loose balls so this is a nice improvement but I’m not sure how repeatable these goals are over a longer time period. Obviously, if he scores 20 JPL goals next year off of loose balls I’ll have to admit he’s got something, but for now, I’m not convinced. Overall, the number of high-danger scoring chances he’s involved in just isn’t that high compared to players like Collin Anderson or Trivante Stewart who were standouts last season.
Kleffer Martes/Atletico Pantoja/CB/2003
Despite being short for a centre back at 177 cm, Martes is a physical and proactive defender on the right side of a back four (who may be best suited to a back three at the next level). Alongside being defensively solid with some aggression, he provides vision to actively scan forward upon receiving in the buildup to find progressive passes, either with his dominant right or slightly weaker left. Martes generally looks to progress first ahead of laterally passing and that includes carries to break lines. His dribbling technique is solid enough to beat his marker going inside and allows him to deal with pressure quite well. Martes’ ability to progress both as a dribbler and as a passer on the ground set the stage for him as a ball-playing defender. Paired with those traits his aerial passing is accurate to progress directly, but he must attempt those in more volume. Defensively, his physicality is more than good enough to deal with shoulder-to-shoulder duels, shrugging off his marker and regaining possession. Martes would be better suited for a back three due to his tendency to come up from his line in anticipation of duels, though over pursuing and lunging past the challenge at times. In duels, his timing is inconsistent though he avoided fouling mostly in this competition. When getting dribbled past in duels, Martes’ recovery pace was timely and quick enough to get back in. Off ball, he marked well and was visibly attentive keeping his head on a swivel and his hips open, not getting caught on runs behind. His pace on recoveries put into question his hustle as he would not get back on time in transition at times, although that could also be a fitness concern. Martes should be a target in MLS Next Pro or USL Championship in the upcoming transfer window.
Omar Thompson/Harbour View/LW/2000
Thompson is a summer signing for the 2022 Jamaican Champions that scored twice in this competition in his five appearances. The right footed left winger displayed his skill in technical dribbling frequently, beating defenders with ease to set up finishes. Thompson’s dribbling ability is clearly above this level and his superiority does not stop there. Off ball, he does well to set himself up on timely runs with flank stretching pace. After receiving he tends to hold up play momentarily then line up his marker for a take-on and utilise that elite dribbling technique to cut inside and progress at the box. His finishing after this was consistent, shooting for the far post with his right, attempting to place it past the keeper, which did lead to him scoring. Additionally, he briefly showed that he can do the same cutting in from the right side and then using his weaker left to shoot. If not finishing, he was able to draw fouls reliably to set up free kicks. Thompson’s weak foot was utilised when creating, too. Passing up the left wing with his outside foot to progress and find runners both chipped and on the ground was an option for him. His main passing motion was short inside using his right and was reliable there. Defensively he tracked back for wing cover when needed but was not anything special there. Athletically, Thompson’s pace/quickness combined with his agility make him a threat on ball even without his dribbling ability. At 23, do not expect any abnormal growth, but his current level is that of a USL League One player with upside to be in the Championship.
Alvyn Lamasine/Golden Lion/RW/2001
Lamasine is a right footed winger from Martinique that is creative and pacy with his lean frame. Those long strides help him stretch the flank, whichever he roams in that match. Those athletic traits combined with his work ethic and willingness to press running up and down the wing is a strong base for an impressive Caribbean talent. In the Shield prior to this tournament, Lamasine displayed his finishing, becoming one of the top scorers utilising his dominant foot on both placed and power shots. Using his defence stretching pace on runs through to get into these positions to finish after a dribble move with pace past his marker was an inevitability for the Golden Lion star throughout this competition. When not getting into finishing positions, he was setting them up via passes inside mainly with his right, either on the ground or by crosses. Lamasine’s crossing was a bit more reliable than the former option and allowed him to still be a threat to shoot when setting up for it. He also tends to look to draw a foul when using technical dribbling to get into the box and that led to him winning a penalty. The attacking skill set Lamasine brings to the table will translate to being either a support winger or inside forward at the next level. I imagine he will be on the radar of USL clubs and possibly Championnat National, considering Martinique’s status as an overseas region of France.
Target Scouting 
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