🇻🇮-🇻🇬, 🇹🇨-🇦🇮 As World Cup qualification beings with a Virgin Islands Classic, meet USVI's Joshua Ramos
...and a Germany native helping Anguilla reach their peak
When World Cup qualification starts today in the Concacaf region, it will pit neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother. The U.S. Virgin Islands meets the British Virgin Islands as both territories just east of Puerto Rico look to earn a place in the second round of WCQ.
In a rivalry, you must throw the record books out. And this is a rivalry, right? …right?
Hmm, let’s check in.
“We’ve gotten this question a lot,” U.S. Virgin Islands captain Joshua Ramos told me this week, chuckling. “I think it definitely adds a little bit of spice to the game. We’ve briefly covered it with the guys, talking about it a little bit. But I think this game is much more important than that and I think we have much higher goals than just playing against the BVI.
“The rivalry is just in the name. I don’t think it plays a big part in how we feel about it.”
Oh, well. Sure. Maybe we can keep the record books, which show seven previous meetings but none since 2011. The BVI has the slight edge, having won three matches, lost two and drawn two.
The ‘rivalry game’ went viral because…it has ‘virgin’ in the name and this is the internet, but more than a meme the matchup between the U.S. Virgin Islands and British Virgin Islands (First leg 5p ET today, second 7p Tuesday, No stream but comment if someone is running a rogue FB Live from the venue) is huge for both teams.
Each, after enjoying a few positive results in Concacaf Nations League League C matchups, feels it can build on a base it has been building, hoping to capitalize on games like today’s.
In the case of the USVI, manager Giba Damiano has worked for five years, rebuilding a national team almost from scratch. The Dashing Eagle lost all four of its WCQ matches in the 2022 cycle but hopes to get a pair of wins this time around.
Damiano and his staff have opted to leave veterans JC Mack and Lionel Brown off the roster, trusting in young players like Ramos, his goalkeeper brother Dylan and several teenagers who can work their way into the starting XI.
🇻🇮 How the USVI national team became JC Mack III's life's work
At 23, Tormenta FC defender Ramos is one of the older players and by virtue of having a contract with a professional team is certainly one of the most seasoned members of the team.
The Ramos brothers grew up in Florida, frequently making trips to their dad’s hometown of Christiansted on St. Croix. While aware of their USVI roots, they didn’t realize the national team could be an option until 2018. After getting in touch in 2019, they became fixtures on the team, with Josh currently a leader and a key player for the future.
“It’s just a great accomplishment to be able to represent my father’s homeland and inspire the youth here and have someone for people to look up to,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming and I think my work has paid off and spoke for itself.”
In addition to bragging rights (again, maybe?), the prize at the end of this tie is a spot in the most interesting second round group in World Cup qualification. Realistically, neither team is in a place where it could challenge Jamaica or Guatemala - with the Dominican Republic also likely to be a few levels too high. But Dominica, who the BVI drew in an October CNL match, is in the group and would be another target for a potential WCQ win.
“I think that would be a huge accomplishment for us to enter that group with those big teams,” Ramos said. “I think mostly it will show the country and inspire the youth to show them the VI is on the rise with how we’re playing and the accomplishments we’re achieving over time, that there is a future here in the VI for soccer and over time we project to be better and better every year.
“I think that’s our main goal is to just have those four to five years pay off in this coming group stage.”
While the reward is four more challenging matches, the risk is losing and having to wait another four years for this type of competitive match.
Nations League guarantees that teams like the USVI and BVI all are playing matches much more frequently. That allows managers like Damiano to attempt to put medium- or long-term plans into place and roll the dice with young players who now have plenty of caps to their names.
Still, the loser of the March series will have a long and frustrating wait even for the next CNL matches in the fall.
With the stakes this high and the familiarity sure to increase as Caribbean teams play more and more official games, perhaps soon the Virgin Islands Classic will go from theoretical animosity to an actual, bitter rivalry with Friday evening fondly remembered as the first chapter.
🇦🇮 Anguilla getting a boost from abroad
Qualification kicks off at 3p ET today when Anguilla hosts the Turks and Caicos Islands.
On the rare occasion Anguilla is covered, it’s usually pointing at how small the population is (15,094) and it’s very low ranking.
And, look, even this newsletter is guilty:
But rather than simply gawk, Germany native Pascal Panitzsch wanted to help. With such a small population size, finding and developing more local players is a difficult road. Yet, the resources to locate players are often lacking.
Anguilla captain Germain Hughes, who told me in 2020 that “if it takes us bringing 12 players from overseas with Anguilla heritage to improve our ranking, that’s what I want to see,” reached out to Panitzsch in 2018 after learning of his expertise in locating players with heritage for Montserrat, Grenada, and Saint Lucia.
The Europe-based scout went to work and has uncovered a number of players eligible to represent Anguilla, including five in the squad that will take on the TCI this month.
“All the big countries have so many opportunities to identify players but for the small countries it is still very difficult because of their small population,” Panitzsch told me this week. “Germain contacted me via Facebook. After that he got me in touch with the former President Raymond Guishard. I’m still very thankful that both had the confidence in me.”
It wasn’t just that initial contact that took place through Facebook. While Panitzsch undertakes a number of research methods, he told me much of the work is done through social media.
His connection to Anguilla only has grown. In 2020, Panitzsch became the general secretary of Uprising FC, one of 11 clubs in the AFA Senior Male League. Tré Gumbs, who helped found the club in 2015, runs operations locally with Panitzsch working as general secretary, media officer Gareth Thomas working from the UK and Louis Jones of Surprise Shirts as the commercial officer.
“Our club constellation is a bit special but it works very well,” Panitzsch said.
All are working to boost not only the national team but also to try and make Uprising the class of Anguillan club soccer and take a place in the Concacaf Caribbean Club Shield.
Recently, the leadership team took a trip to Anguilla - Panitzsch’s third to the island - going directly from the port of entry to the stadium where Uprising opened the season against Eagle Claw. Thomas and Jones suited up as players with Panitzsch on the staff.
“The people in Anguilla are so friendly, on the street everyone says hi and smiles, but our team also did everything possible to make this trip special for us. They collected some money to fill the fridge in our apartment. This was unbelievable,” he said. “And the “Anguillian Archer” himself, Jauron Gayle, took one day off to show us the whole islands. I think I can speak for Gareth and Louis that it was one of the best days of our lives.”
Uprising has four players on the current Anguilla roster - including Gayle and president Gumbs - and no doubt if the Spinning Dolphins secure a first win in an official match since 2010 and are able to advance in WCQ, it would be one of the best days in the lives of many supporters of soccer in Anguilla.
No matter the result, the work will continue for Panitzsch, Thomas, Jones, Gumbs and team.
“I’ve never been a big fan of the big European leagues. I always preferred to watch games from smaller countries, especially from the Caribbean. The Caribbean is my favorite place in the world, and already when I was a little child, I dreamed to one day visit the different beautiful islands.
“That's also why I have so much passion for Caribbean football and especially for Anguilla.”