🇵🇷 - The story of the Puerto Rico Islanders' magical trip to the CCL semifinals

Looking back on one of the best CCL runs ever + Concacaf's new TV deal

The pecking order in the Concacaf Champions League is clear. Only Mexican clubs win. MLS teams are common enough in the semifinals. There are the odd bracket busters from Central America. Teams from the Caribbean, and a second-division team at that? They won’t even make the tournament, and if they do, they sure won’t win any matches.

There is one exception: A now-defunct USL team from Puerto Rico that went on a magical run in 2008-09, toppling Liga MX clubs on the way and nearly landing in the final.

Ask members of the Islanders about it today, more than a decade later, and rather than hear them wax poetic about the achievement, they’re more likely to complain that they didn’t win the whole damn thing.

“Disappointed. It still kind of burns me,” goalkeeper Bill Gaudette told me. “I'm still upset we didn't push through. I actually thought we should have and we deserved to, the boys were fantastic.”

Gaudette isn’t the only one who sounded like he was giving an interview just after falling to Cruz Azul in a shootout.

The first thing manager Colin Clarke remembers about the 2009 run is “kind of how close we came,” he said. “We played well. Every time we played in Concacaf felt like (we’d get) a great result at home. Then, to go down there in one of the toughest places in the world to play and come just a little bit short was was disappointing. Obviously very pleased to have got there, etc, etc. But on the night, we felt that we let it let it slip in some ways.”

The Islanders are being too harsh on themselves. They remain the only Caribbean team to make the CCL semifinals, and it’s difficult to imagine another team doing it any time soon. It’s equally tough to picture a second-division squad like the Islanders getting into the CCL at all, much less making a deep run.

The thing is, Gaudette and Clarke are right. There was so little keeping them from the final and, who knows, even a continental title. Instead of launching soccer to new heights in Puerto Rico, however, the Islanders were gone three years later.

“My life changed from the moment in 2012 when they announced the Islanders would go dark. I thought it would be a matter of a year or two, but as time passes, we live on the nostalgia,” said Abner Santana, a member of the Barra Naranaja, an Islanders supporters’ group. “When that team ceased to exist, everything changed.

“You really see it in the youth levels here because before the kids were enthusiastic, saying one day they wanted to get to the Islanders. It gave them a push. But now they lose the dream.”

The Islanders’ run to the semifinals was plenty inspiring. They landed in the tournament thanks to a third place finish in the CFU Club Championship but quickly made it clear they were the best team from the Caribbean, knocking off Costa Rican giants Alajuelense over two legs to make the group stage.

There, they started off with a pair of home wins, including a 3-1 triumph over Liga MX’s Santos Laguna. While Oribe Peralta and Co. won the match in Torreon 3-0 and the Islanders slipped up at home against Municipal of Guatemala, they did enough to get out of the group and into the knockout round. There, they rolled past Marathón to set up a semifinal with Mexican grande Cruz Azul.

The Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel was full for the first leg, with a mix of local fans cheering on the Islanders and fans supporting Cruz Azul.

‘We wanted to make sure that we came out defensively sound and in the first 5-10 minutes. We knew the crowd is going to be behind us, and we had to make sure that we didn't give them any chances in the beginning of the game,” Islanders midfielder Sandy Gbandi said. “We also want to make sure that we push the pace too try to get up early an early goal on and you know the so they can still put the pressure on them. And that's something that we were able to do.”

Gbandi got on a ball in the box in the fourth minute and used his right foot to rocket the opener past Alfonso Blanco. Nick Adderly added a second in the 36th minute, and the Islanders took a 2-0 advantage into the second leg in Mexico City.

The trip to the Estadio Azul is something that stands out in the minds of the Islanders. While the semifinal match of the inaugural edition of the tournament in its current format wasn’t the highest priority for La Maquina, it still was an environment that differed from the typical USL road trip.

“The fans were crazy,” Gbandi said. “They were saying some things to us that I really can't say on here but you know, that's what you want. You want to be able to play in those type of games, play in those type of atmospheres.”

Things started well for the Islanders once again, with Cristian Riveros earning a soft red in the 32nd minute to give Puerto Rico a man advantage. But Cruz Azul eventually got in gear, with Pablo Zeballos and Javier “Chuleta” Orozco finding the goals to force extra time as Gerardo Torrado controlled the midfield and made it nearly impossible for the Islanders to find an opening.

That is, until Gbandi did it again, scoring a golazo two minutes into the added period, only to see the advantage erased by a header from substitute Cesar Villaluz that meant the aggregate was locked at 3-3 (Fans and players alike bemoan the fact that Gbandi’s goal in extra time didn’t count as an away goal under the tournament rules at the time, something that would’ve put the Islanders through.).

Gaudette ended the night with 16 saves but couldn’t make the penalty stops required to send the Islanders on to the final, with two of his teammates failing to convert and Cruz Azul winning the shootout, 4-2.

While the near-miss may still nag at them all these years later, the Islanders also can reflect fondly on the run, crediting Clarke and Adrian Whitbread with drawing up sharp game plans.

“Playing against Cruz Azul, we knew that they were very good team. but we also knew that we're a good team too,” Gbandi said. “We had a lot of players that had a lot of chips on their shoulders, you know, just because we're playing in Puerto Rico, people think that we're not good soccer players. So, we wanted to go out there and just work hard for each other and Colin Clarke and Adrian Whitbread and all the coaches.

“They put us in good positions to be successful on the field. It was just our job to go out there and make sure tactically that we did everything they wanted us to do.”

The chemistry also was unlike anything many of the players ever had experienced before.

“I was fortunate enough to play in some huge clubs, biggest names, Thierry Henry, Beckham, and everybody else that you can imagine, I've been really fortunate,” Gaudette said. “But that group was just, it was such a tight-knit group. We were so close on and off the field, like no other franchise I've been a part of, and that's really where the success came from.”

The Islanders followed up their semifinal run with another strong CCL showing, getting past Toronto FC the next year (they again met with Cruz Azul, drawing at home and falling on the road) and memorably topping the LA Galaxy 4-1 on the road in the 2010-11 edition before falling out of a group that included Toluca and Olimpia.

Yet, perhaps because the team dissolved soon after, they rarely are mentioned even in the soccer-specific press. “I don't feel like we got the credit that we deserve,” Clarke said. Gbandi said he feels the same way. “It hurts when when I think about it, when other players think about it, that we don't get the recognition we deserve,” he said.

The recognition from the wider Concacaf community may not be where it should be, but the Islanders never will be forgotten at home.

“The Puerto Rico Islanders were a different team. They achieved things no other team has been able to achieve,” said Santana, the supporters’ group member. “With a squad that was shorter than a lot of other teams, the did a lot of great things, above all the Concacaf Champions League runs where they put us on the map as an island.”

While most of the players came from outside Puerto Rico, there was a strong connection immediately. The players regularly visited schools, put on clinics, and did their best to enjoy Caribbean life.

“I think everyone that played for the Puerto Rico islanders loved their time there, loved the fans, loved the interaction,” said Gbandi, who met his wife in Puerto Rico. “Puerto Rico is a great place.”

“It was one of the best years of my life career-wise, just because the camaraderie, those relationships. I still talk to the guys here and there,” Gaudette added. “It's a special time in my career.”

In a strange quirk, players who lived in Puerto Rico for two years were able to represent the national team. With Clarke leading the charge, the national team became a sort of Islanders Light. They failed to advance past Honduras in the 2010 cycle but managed a draw at home against the Catrachos in the second leg. A pair of wins in 2014 World Cup qualification marked the best-ever WCQ performance from the national team.

Instead of remembering results against Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts and Nevis, the standout match in the memory is an August 2012 friendly in Bayamon against Spain, which the reigning world champion reportedly turned up for in exchange for 2 million euros.

“The game against Spain, I mean, what do you say?” Gaudette said. “It was unbelievable. I was playing for New York Red Bulls at the time and going down during that time, I remember the guys joking. Thierry Henry was laughing and saying good luck, you know, ‘I hope you're getting ready to pick the ball up 100 times out of the goal!’”

Instead, the goalkeeper was the standout performer in a 2-1 defeat to the world champion. A dismissive match report in El País described it as ‘a team of super-professionals against one made up of fans,’ but had to concede Gaudette frustrated Fernando Torres and Andres Iniesta. Gaudette remembers ‘El Niño’ joking with him during the game, “like, come on, man, I'm gonna have problems if you can't let me score here.”

Puerto Rico, perhaps wisely, is focusing on finding young players with Puerto Rican heritage who can represent the island for the next few World Cup qualification cycles rather than relying on ringers.

Developing talent on the island also is a priority, but without a pro team, it’s tough since prospects have to leave home to get into academy setups or get top coaching. Stadium damage caused by Hurricane Maria caused Puerto Rico FC, an NASL side owned by NBA star Carmelo Anthony, to go on hiatus and eventually dissolve. Efforts to launch a local league have stalled.

“I don't know if it's ever going to happen again,” Gaudette said. “You know, I really don't. I hope so. I hope there's another team out there that no one talks about and no one has heard about that's going to be able to band together and really go through that tournament, but I don't know if it's gonna happen.

“I was very privileged and proud to see what was going on in that group of players.”

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Quickly taken (not so quickly this edition…lots of news)

🇵🇷 - Dave Sarachan, who was the interim manager of the U.S. national team after Bruce Arena’s departure and most recently coached North Carolina FC in USL, was announced Wednesday as the new manager of the Puerto Rico men’s national team.

Selecciones Nacionales de Puerto Rico @HuracanAzulPR

¡Bienvenido, Dave! #NuestraSelePR 🇵🇷 📰 Detalles aquí » fedefutbolpr.com/dave-sarachan-…

Coincidentally, the man Sarachan replaced at North Carolina FC was the aforementioned Colin Clarke.

The move came as a surprise, since just last month the Huracán Azul was in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala for a pair of friendlies with then-manager Elgy Morales and federation officials speaking about a long-term plan.

Morales confirmed to me late Wednesday that, for now, his relationship with Puerto Rico has come to an end. “We’re satisfied with the work, but most of all with the huge opportunity given to the young players to instill a generational change,” he said. “It was very important for the young players, and even more so for Puerto Rican football.”

📺 - Concacaf and CBS announced a multi-year partnership Wednesday that will see hundreds of Concacaf matches aired on the networks’ new Paramount+ streaming service.

Starting with this summer’s Final Four, CBS Sports will have the rights to the Nations League and also picked up the English-language U.S. rights to final-round World Cup qualification for matches taking place outside the U.S. and Mexico.

This is a huge move for Concacaf, which now can bill the Nations League not only as a sporting success but also start making a case for it to be commercially viable as well.

Additionally, there is big investment on the women’s side, with the 2023 World Cup qualification tournament and the new Women’s Nations League also part of the deal (credit Jonathan Tannenwald for breaking that and other portions of this news).

There will surely be complaints about the games requiring another subscription, but with UEFA Champions League, NWSL and now Argentine and Brazilian leagues coming onto the service, it seems like more than a fair few soccer fans already will be used to firing up the app. Plus, do you remember where the Nations League last aired?

Fox is a fine partner, but FS2, where many Concacaf Champions League matches and events like draws end up, was in 57.5 million homes in 2018. (FS1 has dipped since that time, but those are the latest numbers I could find). With the option to buy in to the streaming service, the games should be more accessible to fans who prefer English-language commentary than ever before - especially the qualifiers. While there was a certain magic to cramming into the back of a restaurant full of Honduras fans that had purchased the PPV, it’ll be nice to flip on the games at home as well.

🇳🇮 - Guatemala and Nicaragua played a friendly Wednesday. Random, right? The January camp games are strange enough, but with teams desperate to get some sort of cohesion ahead of March’s critical qualifiers, national team managers are convincing clubs to play nice.

That said, this game wasn’t a shining example of a contest in which we learned all that much. The Charleston Battery’s Georgia-born Nico Rittmeyer, who made his debut with Los Chapines last month, headed in a stoppage-time goal from a free kick to extend their winning streak to three consecutive friendly matches. A date with Cuba looms.

🥇 - Speaking of things we didn’t learn as much from as we hoped, the United States women’s national team rolled through the SheBelieves Cup undefeated to win the title back-to-back for the first time. The Americans still look like the Olympic favorites, while it’s clear Canada has some work to do (but that work will be easier when Europe-based players can help do it).

The women’s sides of Mexico and Costa Rica also played a pair of friendly matches, with Mexico taking a step forward and then one back after winning the first game 3-1 but playing out a scoreless draw in the second. Good things are happening for Mexican women’s soccer on the league level, but the national team continues to spin its wheels. Mónica Vergara is a bright coach. Can she get the support needed from the federation to turn that into Mexico becoming relevant in the region? It’s the big question.