Swansea manager Michael Laudrup summed it up best when he called the 2012-2013 Capital One Cup final between the Premier Leagues' Swansea City and League Two outfit Bradford City a true "fairy tale," story. When the newly branded Capital One Cup kicked off last summer no one would have ever thought that these two would contest the coveted prize.Swansea who are becoming a very stable top flight team knocked off Chelsea and Liverpool on its way to Wembley. Bradford dispatched the likes of Aston Villa and the Arsenal on their march to England's national stadium which came as a shock to many.
The whole story of Bradford is pretty amazing, their story is like those old cup victories the older generation keeps harping about, like when a lower tier team would just cruise through the competition without conceding a single goal. While I think that has never been done in a major European league the idea of it does warm the insides.
Bradford has a lot of factors that led to their success in the cup, their staunch defense, Wigan can tell you all about that. Their manager, Phil Parkinson set out his team to be hard to beat and they found a goal when they needed to. Some of those tallies came from Bermuda's Nahki Wells, the now 22-year-old was a key man for the "Bantams," with the forward having already notched three goals for the Yorkshiremen so far in the cup.
Watching young Wells on his epic adventure though England's Capital Cup reminded me of the former Bermudian greats like Manchester City's Shaun Goater and the pioneering Clyde Best of West Ham United. I wanted to call Bermuda a one off because of the two and now Wells has popped up on the radar and now its throwing my theory in the water. I said maybe this is just a generational thing, every once in awhile Hamilton pushes out a diamond but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, Bermuda has some really special about her.
In my search for more Bermudians making an impact on a football pitch I happened to stumble across the talents Reggie Lambe, Toronto FC's promising winger who I only last season grabbed my attention. Who I did have a working knowledge of were the Bermuda Hogges a team that plays in America's USL, who coming across teams like the Long Island Rough Riders and the Brooklyn Knights which have some budding talent in their ranks. The Hogges are now co-owned by Goater and continue to make strides in a very competitive league.
Bermuda isn't going to break the hegemony in CONCACAF the likes of the United States and Mexico are light years ahead of everybody else but they do have pieces that they can work with. The likes of Goater and Best can be good examples for others to follow, the Hogges have a great system that can push through young talent and the performances of Lambe and Wells abroad can only do them a service. For an island so small they certainly have the know how to produce players with a bright spark.
Nahki Wells
