Army, champs Cavalier in tough Caribbean Cup group

TT Premier Football League (TTPFL) champions Defence Force have received a tough assignment for the 2025 Concacaf Caribbean Cup, as they have been drawn with title holders Cavalier FC and last season's runner-up Cibao FC in group B for this year's tournament.

The draw was held for the ten-team tournament in Miami on June 3, with the teams being split into two groups of five. Each team will face each other once in the group phase, with the top two teams in each group advancing to the semifinals. The Caribbean Cup finalists and and the third-placed team will qualify for the 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup.

Defence Force are set to come up against the Dominican Republic's Cibao, Haiti's Juventus de Cayes, this year's CFU Club Shield runner-up and the Jamaican Premier League powerhouse team Cavalier, who defended their domestic title last month.

This year's CFU Club Shield is scheduled to be held from July 26-August 3 in Trinidad, where TTPFL clubs Miscellaneous Police FC and AC Port of Spain will be vying to clinch the top two spots to advance to the Concacaf Caribbean Cup.

The Caribbean Cup will be held from August-December, with the first match-day expected to be played between August 19-21. Defence Force, who wrapped up an unbeaten 22-game 2024/25 TTPFL tier one campaign on June 1, have familiarity with Cavalier, as the teams met in the group phase of the 2023 edition of the Caribbean Cup. Defence Force and AC Port of Spain failed to advance from the Caribbean Cup group stage in 2023, with the former drawing 1-1 with Cavalier that season. The Jamaicans eventually finished as runners-up in 2023.

Having failed to advance past the CFU Club Shield qualifiers last year, Defence Force will be hoping to make a much bigger impact in the Caribbean Cup this time around under coach Densill Theobald.

Also hoping to make a splash in this year's Caribbean Cup will be MIC Central FC Reboot, who grabbed a second-place finish behind Defence Force in the just-concluded TTPFL season.

Central FC have been placed in group A alongside Jamaica's Mount Pleasant Football Academy, Dominican Republic's O&M FC, Suriname's SV Robinhood and the champions of this year's CFU Club Shield, who are still to be determined.

SV Robinhood do have history on their side as they lifted the 2023 Caribbean Cup crown. Meanwhile, Mount Pleasant were unable to get past the group phase of the Caribbean Cup last season.