AFP, Orlando :
A night that began as a dream come true for Haiti ended as a nightmare as the Caribbean team were crushed 7-1 by Brazil in their Copa America Centenario game on Wednesday.
Haiti has never featured in the Copa America before and never faced Brazil in an official game, and given the huge popularity of Brazilian football on the Caribbean island, the game was one of the biggest in decades for the country.
But 3-0 down at half-time against a Brazil team who played with freedom and flair, Haiti were unable to avoid a hefty defeat.
“It was definitely a historic moment but it wasn’t a moment unfortunately that we will want to remember,” said midfielder Jean-Marc Alexandre. “It is a bittersweet moment for us.”
The experienced Alexandre, who plays in the second tier North American Soccer League for Fort Lauderdale Strikers, said he was particularly perturbed by the way the team fell apart later in the game.
“Even at half-time when we were down 3-0 our spirit was still in it. The early goal affected us mentally a bit but even at the break we still had hope,” he said.
“But in the second half I felt like we completely lost control of the game.”
Haiti have been making steady improvement in recent years and they qualified for the Copa America after beating Trinidad and Tobago.
Creditable performances against Spain and Italy in pre-World Cup friendlies two years ago boosted confidence and then an impressive CONCACAF Gold Cup campaign last year, where Haiti reached the quarter-finals, confirmed the steps forward.
Alexandre said it was vital that the team didn’t let the hammering from Brazil dent their faith in their progress.
“This is a lesson, at this high level teams like Brazil will capitalise on your mistakes and every mistake we made tonight they capitalised on,” he said.
“It’s an experience for us and hopefully we will learn from it,” he said.
“If we had mistakes like those against a different team it wouldn’t have ended up like that – but when you do it against Brazil, it is a different level, a very high class opponent.”
Alexandre said Haiti, who lost 1-0 to Peru and will finish their group games against Ecuador on Sunday, needed to be realistic in the way they play.
“We have to be more careful with the ball, especially in the final third. We are going to spend most of the game defending in tournaments like these so we can’t afford to give the ball away,” he said.
