Good synopsis of Haiti coochiee & Big Pete. I’m looking forward to tonight’s friendly. Not sure how the match will go (I never read too much into pre-tournament friendlies at this stage), but I recon the AWs are the better side.
That said, Haiti are a huge pain in the ass for Canada (my side) perpetually. They’re big, fast, physical and aggressive. They’re a bogey team for Canadian age group teams over the years and turned over a 0-2 lead at the Gold Cup in 2019.
This era of the squad was always a very organized and familiar back four (Arcus-Ade-Delcroix-Experience, though now I think Lacroix is likely to start at LB), a very aggressive and physical midfield and then Nazon and Pierrot banging in goals up front. You get them in Port-au-Prince in sweltering heat and humidity and playing on a dodgy artificial surface where they’re all over second balls and 50-50s, it’s hard to play quickly through their pressure with the ball bobbling all over and it’s a long day for any opponent. It amazes me that they qualified without playing at home at all. I couldn’t believe Honduras and Costa Rica bottled qualification so badly and Haiti prevailed even without any kind of home field advantage.
They have added a number of played with Haitian ancestry, so the dynamic of this group has evolved in the last 12 months or so. Pierrot is a huge unit, just a massive target man and Nazon plays off of him, but now they have Isidor from Sunderland to play up top and Lenny Joseph (who can play on the wing) too. I really hope Nazon and Pierrot get plenty of time paired with Isidor. They were down 2-0 at half in Costa Rica and it looked like they were done and Nazon bagged a second half hat trick to kick their qualification campaign into gear. Nazon and Pierrot don't have the club pedigree of some of their attackers, but I would back them to be just as effective if not more so.
Deedson and Etienne Jr give them pace on the wings, though Casimir on the right and Joseph on the left may be preferred in the tournament. In the midfield, Bellegarde from Wolves adds more class and Jean-Jacques is tireless.
Johnny Placide is 38 and he’s seen it all with Haiti. The FA f’ed up and didn’t get his US visa sorted and he missed the return leg in Chicago against Canada in the 2022 qualifiers (yes Canada played its home qualifier in Chicago due to COVID restrictions). I’m really pleased for him in particular that they qualified.