Latest News
Speid: Family spirit ‘carried us over the line’
May 26, 2025
Cavalier Soccer Club went into Friday's Jamaica Premier League (JPL) Super Final at the National Stadium a battered and bruised team, after enduring an unprecedented run of 57 matches in 10 months with a limited squad and a number of key players carrying injuries into the championship game.
Nevertheless, the Rudolph Speid-coached team used all their wits and experience to overcome title favourites Mount Pleasant Football Academy 6-5 in a penalty shootout, after a 0-0 score at the end of regulation and extra-time, to lift their second successive title, and their third in five years. It was Cavalier's fourth overall Premier League title success.
Speid admitted it was the arguably the toughest season he has undergone as a coach, and that despite their physical shortcomings, he knew they could have found a way to manoeuvre a path to victory.
"This is one of the hardest seasons we've had," he sighed. "We have played 86 games in one year and 10 months. It was really difficult for us," Speid said.
"We lost eight players from the team last season and we had to work overtime to get these players up to standard to be able to win the title again. But there is always a way, as long as you look hard enough for it," he stated.
Cavalier's three starting forwards, Dwayne Atkinson, Shaquille Stein and Jalmaro Calvin all had injuries heading into the final, especially Calvin and Stein, who were big doubts. All three made it to full time, but none made it through the first half of extra-time.
Speid said the players gave all they got for as long as they could have. And that proved enough.
"We always believe that if a player is good enough to start, he is good enough to play 90 minutes. We tried to get as much as we could out of the best players, and when they could go no more, we moved to a next player," he stated.
He pointed out that many people doubted they would get the better of a Mount Pleasant team that finished the regular season with 93 points, 17 points ahead of second-place Arnett Gardens and 24 points clear of Cavalier in fourth.
Mount Pleasant were also the best attacking team with 94 goals, 20 better than the second top-scoring team in Arnett, and were the best defensive team, with only 21 goals conceded, four less than the team with the next best defensive record, Portmore United.
ONSLAUGHT
However, it was not smooth sailing for Cavalier, who withstood an onslaught from the St Ann team in the first half, before slowing establishing themselves in the second half of the contest.
Mount Pleasant created chances right throughout the match, with players like Franco Celestine and Raheem Edwards getting great opportunities to put their team ahead.
Then when regulation and extra-time failed to separate the teams, the dreaded penalties were required to be the tie-breaker and Cavalier held their nerve despite Christopher Ainsworth being the first to miss.
Mount Pleasant's captain, Sue Lae McCalla, brought Cavalier back into the shootout when he missed, and then Vino Barclett denied Haitian midfielder Clifford Brown of Mount Pleasant to win Cavalier the title.
"When people doubt you. It one of the best ways to come through and prove them wrong," Speid said.
"The players are a family. We are very close with each other. When one player makes mistake, his teammates hug and a say let's go again. And I think that is what carried us over the line."
A dejected Mount Pleasant coach, Theodore Whitmore, said his team did everything right, apart from putting the ball into the net.
"It is a hard pill to swallow," Whitmore said. "We dominated proceedings from start to finish. But what let us down, we didn't put the ball in the back of the net.
"Once it went down to penalty kicks, it was always a gamble. If you play a game and don't score, anything can happen. And we didn't put away our chances," Whitmore lamented.
