United States Virgin Islands National Soccer Team

United States Virgin Islands National Soccer Team

The U.S. Virgin Islands national soccer team, nicknamed The dashing eagle, is the national team of the U.S. Virgin Islands and is controlled by the U.S. Virgin Islands Soccer Federation.

Though FIFA did not officially recognize the USVI team as affiliated until 1992, the Virgin Islands federation was founded in the 1970s by Trinidad native Robert T. Wills who helped build the base of the USVI Soccer Federation as it is known today. The team played its first official international match on 21 March 1998 in a victory against the British Virgin Islands. In May of 2011, the USVI soccer federation chief, Frederick Hillaren, began ambitious changes in the team and appointed Keith Griffith, former coach and captain of the Barbados national football team and former coach of Trinidad and Tobago powerhouse club team Joe Public F.C., as technical director. Within two months of Griffith's appointment, the team shot up 51 places in the FIFA World Rankings, despite the fact that the islands have never produced a professional player, soccer is the third most popular sport on the islands, and the team does not have a national stadium for soccer in which to play.

Read more about United States Virgin Islands National Soccer Team:  Stadium, World Cup Record, Gold Cup Record, U.S Virgin Islands International Record, Current Squad, Coaches, Technical Directors

Famous quotes containing the words united states, united, states, virgin, islands, national, soccer and/or team:

    “... it is probable that in a fit of generosity the men of the United States would have enfranchised its women en masse; and the government now staggering under the ballots of ignorant, irresponsible men, must have gone down under the additional burden of the votes which would have been thrown upon it, by millions of ignorant, irresponsible women.”
    —Jane Grey Swisshelm (1815–1884)

    “The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
    —William Howard Taft (1857–1930)

    “How many ages hence
    Shall this our lofty scene be acted over
    In states unborn and accents yet unknown!”
    —William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    “The spring is here, young and beautiful as ever, and absolutely shocking in its display of reckless maternity; but the Judas tree will bloom for you on the Bosphorus if you get there in time. No one ever loved the dog-wood and Judas tree as I have done, and it is my one crown of life to be sure that I am going to take them with me to heaven to enjoy real happiness with the Virgin and them.”
    —Henry Brooks Adams (1838–1918)

    “What are the islands to me
    if you are lost
    what is Naxos, Tinos, Andros,
    and Delos, the clasp
    of the white necklace?”
    —Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)

    “Our national determination to keep free of foreign wars and foreign entanglements cannot prevent us from feeling deep concern when ideals and principles that we have cherished are challenged.”
    —Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)

    “Our first line of defense in raising children with values is modeling good behavior ourselves. This is critical. How will our kids learn tolerance for others if our hearts are filled with hate? Learn compassion if we are indifferent? Perceive academics as important if soccer practice is a higher priority than homework?”
    —Fred G. Gosman (20th century)

    “They’re two good old friends of mine. I call them Constitution and The Bill of Rights. A most dependable team for long journeys. Then I’ve got another one called Missouri Compromise. And a Supreme Court—a fine, dignified horse, though you have to push him on every now and then.”
    —Dan Totheroh (1895–1976)