2023-07-28 09:00:11
The Haiti team before their World Cup match against England in Brisbane (Australia), July 22, 2023. TERTIUS PICKARD / AP
The very first match in their history in the World Cup, against the reigning European champions, could have been a long ordeal. The players of Haiti have yet competed with England, Saturday, July 22, despite their defeat (1-0). “We are very proud of our performance. We worked hard and it was a big test for us. We were very close to the level of England “welcomed Nicolas Delépine, the French coach of the Grenadières.
Also read: 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup schedule: matches and which channel to watch them on
This defeat is therefore encouraging for the Haitian team, which acts as Petit Poucet of the competition. Like Morocco, Zambia, Ireland, Vietnam, Portugal, Panama or the Philippines, it is playing its first World Cup. This participation is a feat for the Caribbean country, which had only played one World Cup in its history, that of 1974 for men. Friday, July 28 at 1:30 p.m. (Paris time), the Haitians will face China for their second match of the competition.
In Australia, observers can measure the progress of women’s football in Haiti and the affirmation of a generation in the making. The Grenadières are the youngest selection of this World Cup, with 22.2 years on average, against 26.3 years for all 32 nations in the running.
“Our “old” are 23-24 years old”, said smiling Nicolas Delépine, 44 years old. The latter took charge of the selection in February 2022, after discovering a Haitian women’s football that “was doing very well”. After the 2010 earthquake, which caused the death of more than 200,000 people and devastated the country, Haitian football was able to leverage the more than two million euros in aid provided by the International Football Federation ( FIFA) to rebuild.
A training center built by FIFA
The players present at the World Cup have almost all been trained at the Croix-des-Bouquets ranch, a center built after 2010 to host the Haitian Football Federation (FHF). Nérilia Mondésir, captain of the Grenadières, is one of those pure products of the academy nicknamed Camp Nous – “our camp” in Creole – in reference to the FC Barcelona stadium. “This center has allowed us to be where we are today”she argues.
Younger, the 24-year-old striker did not imagine herself as a footballer. Former judoka, she discovers the round ball at 13 years old, “because there was the opportunity to turn professional”. The first generation to know the ranch, of which she is a part, played in the Under-20 (U20) World Cup in France in 2018. The second, younger, is embodied by striker Melchie Dumornay (19 years). Nicknamed “Corventina”, she tormented the English defense in the first match of the World Cup.
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