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Intervil’s back: Forgotten Haitian soccer star leads Real Hope to Victory

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Intervil’s back: Forgotten Haitian soccer star leads Real Hope to Victory
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CAP-HAITIEN — Real Hope Football Academy’s star winger, 19-year-old Rapha Intervil, was so elated after Tuesday night’s match on Dec. 3 that he couldn’t sleep—and for good reason. After surmounting a multitude of hardships on and off the field, Real Hope qualified for the Concacaf Champions Cup for the first time in its history. 

Intervil, who was going through a dark period in his career due mainly to a lack of confidence, regained his form, scored a goal, and assisted another one to ensure his club secured a spot in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup. His goal and assist contributed to Real Hope FA’s 3-2 victory over Moca Football Club at Moca 85 Stadium in the Dominican Republic.

“I showed people that I’m still here,” the Real Hope star said the morning after the game. “It’s true that I didn’t start well, but I finished well. I gave the team its ticket to the [Concacaf] Champions League.”

Intervil was Real Hope’s top player in the Haitian League this past season but didn’t start the Caribbean Cup as expected, often showing a lack of confidence. Haitian sports analysts attribute the young winger’s subpar performances to the fact he was playing in a new and more competitive competition. It is highly usual for inexperienced Haitian players to shine in local competitions but underperform in regional tournaments. Tuesday night, Intervil was revealed as a rare exception where he adjusted in a regional tournament after struggling at first.

 “When I have the ball, they’re yelling at me, so I can’t be as comfortable as I would like. In the national championship, when I have the ball at my feet, I do whatever I want with it. No one is making noises in my head.”

 Rapha Intervil, Real Hope Academy winger

The pressure players receive from their club and fans in regional tournaments is also significantly greater than that at the local level, as Intervil himself portrayed in his post-game statement. 

“When I have the ball, they’re yelling at me, so I can’t be as comfortable as I would like,” Intervil said. “In the national championship, when I have the ball at my feet, I do whatever I want with it. No one is making noises in my head.”

Real Hope qualified for the Concacaf Champions Cup after defeating Moca 4-2 on aggregate in the two-leg third-place games of the Caribbean Cup. The first match between the two neighboring countries’ teams ended 1-0 in favor of the Cap-Haïtien club through winger Stanley Joseph’s lone goal. 

It’s four qualifications in five years for Haitian clubs

This is the fourth time in just five years that a Haitian club has qualified for the Confederation of North, Caribbean and Central American Federations Champions Cup despite the country’s clubs’ multiple challenges. For instance, beyond sociopolitical instabilities preventing regular competition in Haiti, Real Hope does not even have a regulated and Concacaf-sanctioned soccer field to host regional games. The club also struggled enormously to raise enough money for hotel and travel expenses, food for the players, and more.

Daniel Saint-Fleur [left], Steve Mondestin [center] and Jimmylson Guillaume [right] in a graphic from the Concacaf Champions Cup after Real Hope Football Academy qualified for the 2025 edition of the competition. Credit: Concacaf Champions Cup

Additionally, the Haitians qualified by defeating a team from their hostile neighboring rival’s land, the Dominican Republic, on its soil, where both first- and second-leg games were played. The Dominican Republic has grown tremendously in its soccer sector in recent years and has been seriously challenging more traditionally astute Haitian clubs.

In October, Cibao Football Club defeated Real Hope 4-2 in the semifinals of the Caribbean Cup. The players wanted to avenge themselves against another Dominican team in Moca, and they did just that.

Intervil turned from superstar to benchwarmer

The young winger turned many eyes on him in the Haitian League by casually bolting past his opponents down the wing to assist or score goals himself. He was the national league’s fourth top scorer with four goals in the short-makeshift season of 2024. The Léogâne native eagerly wanted to impress in the Caribbean Cup as well as to earn a contract overseas. But he quickly learned that the Caribbean Cup is a much different competition than the Haitian League. 

In his first Caribbean Cup game in August, Intervil dropped his shoulder and started bolting down the wing. But, a Trinidad and Tobago’s Police Football Club defender put the weight of his body on the Haitian teenager and easily took the ball away from him. After that sequence of play, Intervil started to sprint less and play it safe by making simple passes to his teammates. He quickly became a bench player, and the coaching staff chose players with more overseas experience.

The young star then started regaining confidence in the first leg against Moca FC after coming off the bench in the second half last week. On Tuesday night, he was subbed in early in the first half of the second leg after Stanley Joseph suffered an injury.

In the end, Intervil proved to be comfortable, often using his speed down the wing but he mishit two shots in the second half. Soon after that, Real Hope conceded two goals and the score was 2-2 on aggregate so the team needed to score at least one and not concede to qualify for the Champions Cup.

“I had one thought in my head, ‘Oh man, the fans are going to get mad at me, the coaches are going to get mad at me,’” Intervil said, laughing. “I motivated myself.”

The 19-year-old assisted the game-winning goal after making a powerful run in the box and passing the ball to Daniel Saint-Fleur in the 90th minute. Intervil later scored himself after one-timing a shot into the net from the 18-yard box in the 95th minute.

Soccer fans in Haiti are thrilled because their local starlet regained his form again and some of them expressed their joy on social media.

“I’m happy for the guy,” Lazard Dorélus Huguens of  Pétion-Ville commented on Facebook. “He showed up when the team needed him the most.”

The Champions Cup, which is even more competitive than the Caribbean Cup, will start in February and end in June 2025. Real Hope will need to overcome many hurdles, such as acquiring players’ visas, gathering more financial support, improving their stamina, and more. However, Intervil is not shying away and hopes to roll his recent good performances into the new competition.

“We’re going to train even harder,” Intervil said. “If we’re in the competition it means that we’re going to try to win it.”

The post Intervil’s back: Forgotten Haitian soccer star leads Real Hope to Victory appeared first on The Haitian Times.


Intervil’s back: Forgotten Haitian soccer star leads Real Hope to Victory was first posted on December 5, 2024 at 11:11 am.

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