By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The Bahamas men’s national soccer team suffered a 6-1 loss to Puerto Rico last night in the CONCACAF Nations League at the Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, and could end up being relegated from League B to League C.

Coming out of the locker room to start the second half down 4-0, Marcel Joseph pushed the Bahamas on the scoreboard when he booted in the team’s first goal in the 53rd minute.

Head coach Nesly Jean said they just simply got off to a slow start and were not able to make up enough ground to get back into the game, claiming that they just didn’t do what they were supposed to do in the first half. “I think we started off very slow. Obviously we had a game plan, which we did not follow,” he said. “Obviously, we need to be more disciplined when we are playing at this level.

“We tried to explain to the guys that anytime you make mistakes, you are going to get punished. So I think this is a learning process for the guys. They are improving, but we need to get better. We need to get better as we move forward.”

Puerto Rico stacked up all of their goals in the first half as Ricardo Rivera booted a hat trick, scoring their first three goals in the second, sixth and 19th minutes and Darren Rios added the other goal in the 30th minute.

For good measure, Puerto Rico delighted their home fans by adding a pair of goals after the Bahamas got on the scoreboard with shots from Gerald Diaz in the 74th minute and Wilfredo Rivera in the 77th.

Jean admitted that while there were players who were either hurt or couldn’t get out of their school commitments to travel, they went with the best 11 players in their pool.

Along with Joseph, the other members of Team Bahamas’ starting line-up were Michael Butler, Brandon Adderley, Jean Tilo, Lesly St Fleur, Jonathan Miller, Evelt Julmis, Christopher Rahming, Wood Julmis, Ricardo McPhee and Nahum Johnson.

The reserves were Cameron Pratt, Miguel Thompson, Junior Kelly and Amard Adderley.

The CONCACAF Nations League match was supposed to be the final one of their November window but the collapsing of a highway wall, which resulted in the death of nine people, and inclement weather conditions in Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico, resulted in their match against Guyana being postponed on Sunday.

The League B, Group D teams were initially scheduled to play the home game at the Thomas A Robinson National Stadium but due to ongoing renovations at the venue it was moved to the Estadio Olímpico Fèlix Sànchez.

The Bahamas remains winless in last place in the standings in League B, Group D and could now be relegated to League C in 2024 after Guyana won their match 6-0 against Antigua to keep their hopes alive.