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Trinidad and Tobago’s 2019 Under-17 World Cup dreams ended this afternoon in Florida, as the young Soca Warriors fell 4-1 to Honduras in their Concacaf Championship Round of 16 contest at the IMG Academy.
Presentation College (San Fernando) schoolboy Jaiye Sheppard scored with a clever improvised finish in the box while Trinity College East goalkeeper Kahlil Oliver saved an early penalty. But that was not nearly enough to get the Warriors to the quarterfinal round.
(Copyright Concacaf)
Honduras managed only one win in their three group outings, as their triumph against Guyana was sandwiched between losses to Haiti and El Salvador respectively. In the end, they progressed comfortably today though.
Trinidad and Tobago could have been behind from as early as the sixth minute, as winger Tyrese Pierre fouled José Aguilera in the box. But Honduran captain Steven Bonilla’s penalty was too tame and straight to beat Oliver.
Sheppard brought the best out of Honduran custodian José Banegas with a snapshot in the first half. But by halftime, statistics pointed to the superiority of the Central American nation who had 54 per cent possession and outshot T&T by 11 to 4.
[dfp-ad]Just 44 seconds after the resumption, Honduras opened their account as unmarked centre forward Jeffrey Miranda beat Oliver with a looping header after his teammate Roney Bernardez’s effort was deflected.
Trinidad and Tobago did not take it lying down and, like against Jamaica, they fought back. A deep Kevan Kahoussi free kick in the 57th minute landed fortuitously on the feet of Sheppard who controlled with his right foot—with his back to goal—and allowed the ball to run across his body before slapping into the far corner with his left.
The young Warriors never got to build on the clever strike, though. Within three minutes, they were behind again as Aguilera drove below Oliver’s body after T&T captain Zachary Welch conceded possession near the halfway line.
Trinidad and Tobago coach Stern John gambled with attacking players from then on as Curtis De Leon, Jerrell Nixon and then Andrew De Gannes were sent on. But it did not have the desired impact, as Honduras ran riot on the break.
(Copyright Concacaf)
Miranda struck again in the 76th minute as he rounded Oliver to finish, off an Aguilera cross. And the talented forward completed his hattrick in the 87th minute from another counter, after Miguel Carrasco robbed De Leon in Trinidad and Tobago’s half of the field.
The final count of 22 Honduran shots to seven from T&T told its own tale.
For the Trinidad and Tobago team, it was not all bad. Just six weeks before the competition, John was offered a team that were decimated at Concacaf Under-15 level in 2017 when they lost all four outings with one goal for and 21 conceded.
In this competition, John’s troops scored seven times and allowed 12 goals from their four fixtures.
The steadier structure allowed the likes of centre forward Justin Araujo-Wilson, Sheppard, midfielder Ajani Fortune and left back Luke Savery to showcase their individual ability.
It was not enough for a quarterfinal place, though.
(Teams)
Trinidad and Tobago U-17 (4-3-3): 20.Kahlil Oliver (GK); 2.Nigel Carraby, 4.Jordon Britto, 5.Cephas St Rose (14.Jerrell Nixon 78), 3.Luke Savery; 17.Kevan Kahoussi (10.Andrew De Gannes 85), 6.Zachary Welch (captain) (12.Curtis De Leon 63), 19.Ajani Fortune; 8.Tyrese Pierre, 9.Justin Araujo-Wilson, 7.Jaiye Sheppard.
Unused substitutes: 1.Isaiah Williams (GK), 11.Jean-Heim Mc Fee, 13.Gary Griffith III, 15.Jeremy Lashley, 16.Keilon Burnett-Acevaro, 18.Isa Sayeed.
Coach: Stern John
Honduras U-17 (4-3-3): 1.José Banegas (GK); 4.André Orellana, 5.Jafeth Chávez, 17.Luis Vega, 3.Steven Bonilla (captain); 16.Miguel Carrasco, 8.Carlos Palacios, 13.José Aguilera (10.Marvin Ávila 86); 2.Roney Bernardez, 20.Jeffrey Miranda (9.Héctor Medrano 89), 14.Michael Rosales.
Unused substitutes: 12.Isaac González (GK), 6.Elix Gómez, 7.Brian Sierra, 19.José García.
Coach: José Valladares
Referee: John Pitti (Panama)
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Outgoing Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team head coach Angus Eve had another 17 months left on his contract Read more
The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Under-17 Team closed off their tour to Jamaica yesterday evening with a 1-0 defeat Read more
Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Under-17 Team head coach Shawn Cooper said his troops will leave Jamaica with their heads Read more
Jamaica-based attacker Akel Vesprey got the decisive goal against the nation he now calls home today, as he steered Trinidad Read more
Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) president Kieron Edwards described the Men’s National Under-17 team’s tour to Jamaica this week Read more
Only capable real coaches can teach defense. That takes quality coaching skills .
Yeah especially when you see our football pundits on Steve David “Field of Dreams” talking this and that instead of talking the TRUTH about the mess that our football is really in and some even right here on wired volley ent Them really good yes
The comments here will be the same comments said for the past 3 – 4 years.
Trinidad politics destroying the players who really supose to be on the team for us to win. Year after year is hard luck good effort our mindset has to change towards sports.
At the end of the day this also show that our bootleg Coaches who never coached any national teams and not even a minor league team and was very successful with the winning stats can’t be the coach of our national teams hence the reason why our football continues backwards and also hence the reason why they will continue loosing because when they go up against the real professional coaches and Technical Directors from these other countries especially the Central / South Americans teams it is always licks like peas and back to the drawing board Them really good yes steeuupsss
You would think by now they have learnt their lesson. Shame Shame and more shame.
At the end of the day this just goes to show you cannot just pull a team together for a month of training and expect a miracle once again. Those boys played with everything they had and I’m proud of their resolve, but they deserved better. IMAGINE THE RESULTS WITH PROPER PREPARATION. International football cannot be treated as some half ass thing that comes around every so often, the TTFA is continuing to a disservice to football in the country this cycle has to end. This team had the talent, and I hope they get a chance to continue to grow as a team.
Skipper is decent, coachable.
im no “pro scout”…but the players that caught my eye…Britto…Araujo-Wilson…Sheppard and the seldom used DeLeon.
well young boys..you got 4 games at Concacaf level…sadly yous were set up to fail…inactive..no prep..put together…you did your best..sadly it dont work like that….i wont going into elite youth coaching….as thats a whole next story…the SCARY THING is..Honduras a not a good team…thats SCARY…keep working boys…you got to see the level…
Well Mexico qualified for the next round vs El Salvador after defeating Puerto Rico 2- 1 and I am wondering if our young Warriors had played against Puerta RICO if we wudda beat them up the same eh Them really good yes
Our Brazil prolific goal scorer on a roll….VIVA Brazil hahahaha
In order to win games and qualify for tournaments a team or country team must have a real top of the line goal keeper, solid defenders that understand the subject, midfield generals play makers / goal scorers and three real prolific goal scorers in the forward the same as the Honduras player who scored the hat trick and most importantly a real professional Coach who has a winning stats in a real professional league Them really good yes
So some of Alyuh really felt that this team was going to any Youth World Cup tournament in my greatest team in the universe sweet country, the two teams that they played against and won is two ta ta teams and even if the bootleg Coaches had used their first team against Mexico the results wudda be the same like against Honduras and the next thing about these nowadays players they just can’t dance in order to play the beautiful game and this I have been saying a while now and nobody ain’t taking me on so my dictator president should just let the same loosing coaches continue coaching the U 23 and other youth teams that are qualifying for the other future youth tournaments because allowing Coach Angus Eve and the two other coaches to coach the loosing will definitely continue especially when the new thing now is that our Coaches are Coaching our national teams for free and some are even putting out their own monies the same like Coach Stern John in order to do so Them really good yes
Great effort!❤️
This team exceeded expectations but this tournament was never going to end well. Kudos to the boys, the parents, and the staff for their effort. Of course, the Big Boss and his cohorts sorely mismanaged this team – as they mismanage ALL our national teams. Now, they want to throw the men’s Under-23, and women’s Under-17 and Under-20 teams under the bus in similar fashion. They are all due to play in June/July. The men’s beach football team is faced with withdrawal from its qualifying tournament. DJW. The president who keeps on giving.
Keith Look Loy your “expectations” must have been somewhere below the white line??
Well, I expected to win against Bermuda, even these days. Against Jamaica I expected a draw at best. Honduras is Honduras but having seen them against El Salvador I did think we had a chance but we were undone by poor defending once again.
We are not scouting and picking the best players. We are not ensuring a proper budget to get the best staff in place, or to allot enough time to prepare to win. Major overhaul within proper budgeted parameters needed.
I applaud the team and technical staff for their effort and commitment displayed during the tournament. Given the farcical nature of preparation, the boys did better than expected, and for that they can lift their heads high. However, when you examine the bigger picture, things look dismal.