The Haitian soccer team, beaten 3-0 by Brazil on Friday, June 19 in Philadelphia, suffered its second loss in the World Cup and is moving closer to the exit door of the competition.
The miracle didn’t happen against Brazil. The Seleção, unsurprisingly, won 3-0 against a Haitian team that clearly had no plan to stop Brazil’s repeated offensive attacks.
At the start of the match, the Haitians were committing a lot of fouls: Danley Jean Jacques (3rd minute) and Carlens Arcus (4th minute), who got a yellow card for dangerous play. In the meantime, Raphinha (12th minute) thought he had opened the scoring for Brazil, but his goal was disallowed for offside.The Grenadiers had to wait until the first fifteen minutes of the match to make an impression by passing the ball between teammates. Carlens Arcus’ cross (18th minute) didn’t find anyone, and everything had to start over for the Haitian team.
The FC Barcelona forward, who was going to leave the field due to injury and be replaced by Rayan (40th minute), had missed his one-on-one with Johnny Placide in the 22nd minute.
A minute later, following a poor clearance by Ricardo Adé, Vinicius Jr snatched the ball and took a shot that was poorly blocked by the Grenadiers’ last line of defense. Ready for the rebound, Manchester United’s striker, Matheus Cunha (23rd minute), got ahead of Hannes Delcroix and smashed the ball into Johnny Placide’s net to open the score for Brazil.The Haitians, in the 34th minute of play, tried in vain to respond by making the Brazilians chase the ball. There he is again, Matheus Cunha (36th), on a golden assist from Vinicius, doubles the lead for Brazil who are up 2-0.
Above all, the Grenadiers’ ordeal is only just beginning as Vinicius, who ended up being man of the match, on a long pass from Paqueta, outpaces the Haitian defense to get past Johnny Placide and score the 3-0 goal (45+2) before halftime.
At the restart, Sébastien Migné, who had lined up his team in a 5-4-1, made two changes by bringing in Wilson Isidor and Dominique Simon in place of Frantzdy Pierrot and Carlens Arcus respectively to readjust his team into a classic 4-3-3.Unable to threaten the Brazilian defense, the national coach, two minutes after the hour mark, brought Don Deedson Louicius on for Josué Casimir (62nd minute). Less impressive in this match, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde found the head of Ricardo Adé from a corner (63rd minute), but just barely, as Alisson Baker touched the ball, which was eventually cleared off the goal line by Danilo.
Three minutes later, Jean-Kévin Duverne, pushing forward, took a shot that was caught by Brazil’s last line of defense, Alisson Baker.
Right after, Martinelli (68th minute), Arsenal’s striker, hit the post, beating Johnny Placide in this action. Endrik, who came on, had his goal disallowed for offside.At the very end of the match (81st minute), Sébastien Migné made two substitutions, bringing in Lenny Joseph for Ruben Providence and Derrick Etienne for Jean-Ricner Bellegarde. Wilson Isidor, in the 87th minute, couldn’t get past Alisson Baker, and Ricardo Adé’s weak shot (88th) went off target.
No other goals were scored during the five minutes of added time given by the referee. Indeed, without breaking a sweat, Brazil won 3-0 to take control of Group C, benefiting from Morocco’s narrow 1-0 victory over Scotland.
The Group C standings and the 3rd roundAt the end of the second day, it’s Brazil, with 4 points (+3), who takes the lead in Group C ahead of Morocco: 4 points (+1). With 3 points, Scotland is in 3rd place ahead of Haiti, last with zero points.
On the last day of Group C, on June 24, Brazil will face Scotland and Haiti will go up against Morocco.
It’s worth noting that no team in Group C is qualified or eliminated yet. That means everything is still to play for on the final day of the World Cup group stage.
The Grenadiers’ starting XI:
Johnny Placide (cap, gk) – Carlens Arcus, Jean Kevin Duverne, Ricardo Adé, Hannes Delcroix, Martin Expérience – Danley Jean Jacques, Jean-Ricner Bellegarde – Josué Casimir, Ruben Providence – Frantzdy Pierrot
