By BRENT STUBBS

Chief Sports Editor

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas men’s national soccer team closed out play in the first half of the Group D of the inaugural 2025-26 CONCACAF Series over the weekend with a 6-0 loss to the British Virgin Islands.

Coming off their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Anguilla in their opener on Wednesday at the Truman Bodden Sports Complex in George Town, Cayman Islands, The Bahamas couldn’t get anything through the goal posts as they returned home with a 0-2 win-loss record.

The team, however, will get a chance to redeem itself when they play the second half of the series in March, 2026 against the Cayman Islands at a site yet to be revealed. Head coach Kevin Davies said it was all about the development of the future generation of players between the ages of 16-17 for Team Bahamas in the new CONCACAF initiative that offers valuable international competition and development opportunities for member nations during the World Cup off-cycle.

“It was a tough one, tough one,” said Davies, who was assisted by Andre Roberts. ‘“The team was just a little bit better than us and more organised. They scored a suspect early goal and that changed the dynamics of the game pretty early. Nonetheless, there were just some mistakes that allowed them to score a few more goals.”

Despite the loss, Davies said it was a good test to see where the players were and at the same time give them some exposure.

He said they all got another opportunity and so he’s hoping that they will only get better as they prepare for the next round.

“They just need to improve on their overall technical skills,” Davies said. “We really didn’t have much time to work with them because the team really just came together about a week ago.

“But once they can improve their ball awareness, field technicality and field awareness, we can only get better."

Team Bahamas was comprised of Dylan Archer, William Bayles, Michael Butler, Lance Carroll, Omar Chemaly, Camrawn Cox, Oakland Duncan, ReJohn Ene, William Gardiner, Marcel Joseph, Jack Massey, Ricardo McPhee, Jonathan Miller, Miguel Thompson, Jean Tilo, Nathan Walker, Brody Wheaton and Vance Wheaton.

While they wait to find out where and when they will face the Cayman Islands in March, Davies said it’s his hope that the BFA will keep the nucleus of the team together and just add one or two more experienced players to help them get over the hump.

“We are in our rebuilding stage. The nucleus of this team will be a part of that team,” said Davies about the match next year. “We just need to add a few more guys who couldn't travel for this tournament.”

The team was managed by Larry Minns.

Daniel Miller was the medical officer with Carlton Adderley as the equipment manager.

The head of delegation was Fred Lunn.