It might have been a long time coming, but Tre Ming’s first goal for Bermuda was definitely worth the wait.
The 21-year-old midfielder opened his account after scoring Bermuda’s equaliser in their 2-1 victory over French Guiana in their Caribbean Cup preliminary-round qualifier at the National Stadium last weekend.
“With coach Andrew Bascome pushing me further up the field than my usual position, I was just eager to get any type of scraps anywhere I can,” Ming said.
The PHC player followed up on Zeiko Lewis’s rebound and swept the ball over the line from close range.
“When the goalkeeper dropped it the only thing going through my mind was keep it low and on target in case I do miss someone else can tap it in,” Ming added. “Once it went in it was show time.”
Ming celebrated the milestone by doing the Whip/Nae-Nae — last summer’s dance craze to Silentó’s hit song Watch Me — in front of the grandstand.
“I usually don’t celebrate, but it was my first international goal and was definitely special,” he said.
Ming, who helped guide Thomas College to their fourth NAC Championship title in six years last year, and his Bermuda team-mates went into the match knowing very little about their opponents.
“We didn’t know too much about French Guiana so we went in respecting them and tried not to let them play,” Ming, last year’s North Atlantic Conference Player of the Year, said. “But they were still able to play, so all we were trying to do was get them to make a mistake and counter.
“When we went down we still knew we could score against them and so it was just a matter of time. Once we got ahead we were more disciplined in our formation and coach Bascome switched me from attacking midfield to holding midfield alongside Roger Lee and put Marco in front of us to give that extra security for our centre backs. After the final whistle blew it was celebration all over.”
Bermuda advanced to the second round of the competition three days later after group winners French Guiana’s 3-0 home victory over Cuba.
“The word is that our next group will be St Kitts and Puerto Rico but it’s not confirmed yet,” Ming said. “But I’m not concerned who we play, I’m just eager to play.”
Ming believes that Bermuda’s future is in good hands with the present crop of players.
“We can be a serious team if we get the right preparation like we did for Guatemala [in last June’s World Cup qualifiers],” he said. “We can definitely be a threat going forward with the right preparation.
“We definitely gel together, not just because we are a young group, but because we all understand each other’s attributes. So on that platform it makes it easier to be ourselves and a lot of praise has to go to Andrew Bascome, Kyle Lightbourne and Maurice Lowe because they have the trust in us to do our jobs.”
