Shandel’s spot on

For Shandel Samuels, scoring goals has become as normal as breathing.
The 30-year-old Vincentian national forward gave a spectacular performance in Sunday’s final of the KFC Champions Cup, bagging a hat-trick on his way to leading OKG Rendezvous to a crushing 6-1 victory over Mackeson Brittons Hill.
It carried his tally of goals in the competition up to 15 from just seven matches, and earned him the MVP and Best Forward awards.
People may be surprised at his ability to find the back of the net with such regularity, but not Samuels.
“To me, scoring goals is normal, because I normally score goals,” he told MIDWEEKSPORT shortly after his side were crowned champions at the Wildey AstroTurf.
“I was very confident coming into this game because we had been training hard, very hard. I have been doing a lot of personal training and a lot of shooting drills, so for me to come tonight and score a hat-trick is not surprising to me at all.”
Samuels revealed that as part of his training schedule he usually spent hours practising shooting drills.
He said that this had made him much more confident in front of goal when scoring opportunities presented themselves in games.
But even an obviously confident Samuels couldn’t have predicted the eventual 6-1 drubbing which Rendezvous inflicted on their hapless opponents in a one-sided final.
“When I was leaving home I was saying that we were probably going to win 2-1 or 3-1, because I was honestly expecting a tighter game.
“We had a tough road to get to the finals. The quarter-finals and the semi-finals were hard and I thought the final would have been a little tighter,” he acknowledged.
Having completely dominated the Division 2 competition and gained promotion to Division 1 next season, Samuels said that he expected Rendezvous to continue to perform well.
 “Next year we are headed to Division 1, so you know we will be looking to win that competition as well and work our way up to the Premier League.
“We don’t intend to ease up. We are coming with the intention to do well and to defend our Cup,” he maintained.
And for those teams who are looking to entice the skilful striker away from Rendezvous, Samuels has no intention of leaving.
“I ain’t moving. I ain’t going nowhere,” he said.