T&T edged 2-1 by P/Rico in key W Gold Cup qualifier, despite Ali magic

The Trinidad and Tobago Women’s National Senior Team are rock bottom of Group A and unlikely to qualify for the Concacaf W Gold Cup, after suffering a draining 2-1 defeat to Puerto Rico at the Hasely Crawford Stadium last night.

The Women Soca Warriors now travel to Puerto Rico for their return leg at the Estadio Juan Ramon Loubriel, Bayamon on Tuesday night. And anything but a comfortable victory will mean lights out for coach Richard Hood’s team.

At present, Mexico lead the standings after wins over Puerto Rico (2-1) and T&T (6-0). The group winner will advance directly to the W Gold Cup while the runners-up face a playoff.

Last night’s affair was statistically even between the two sides while Club Sando starlet winger Alexcia Ali’s sublime improvised equaliser in the 49th minute energised an otherwise subdued crowd of roughly 800 patrons at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.

But Puerto Rico captain Jillenne Aguilera took the wind out of T&T’s sails with the winner in the 54th minute—less than five minutes after Ali’s wonder goal.

“I am rather disappointed with the result certainly, and certain aspects of the performance as well,” said Hood, in the post-match media conference. “Our game plan today was really to press Puerto Rico. I think in the first 20 minutes we did a decent job of that.

“We won a lot of balls up the pitch and created opportunities that we should have finished off, with more composure. Following that, I thought we fell rather flat.

“We allowed them to come into the game, we allowed their stoppers to push all the way up to about half line and that was not the plan.”

The hosts enjoyed some positive spells of play, but appeared to have lost the battle by about the 70th minute when their most creative player, Ali, was replaced—with most of her teammates looking dejected and out of sorts.

Puerto Rico started the affair with some early spells of possession. But the hosts created the first few half-chances, starting in the 12th minute, when midfielder Chelcy Ralph warmed goalkeeper Jlo Varda Vazquez’s gloves with a peppery strike from a few metres outside of the penalty area.

Ralph and Zoe Maxwell alongside her impressed early on, together with Ali, the diminutive winger, who posed Trinidad and Tobago’s biggest threat in attack.

The match though was slowed down by incessant fouls to the extent that neither team was able to create momentum.

Puerto Rico were dangerous on set plays and took advantage of a series of shaky moments by Trinidad and Tobago custodian Simone Eligon, including a pair of mistimed attempts to catch cross-balls.

Puerto Rico eventually took the lead in the 30th minute, when right winger Juelle Love took on Warriors captain Karyn Forbes and left her in the dust near to the goal-line before passing for Skylynn Rodriguez to finish.

Love nearly doubled Puerto Rico lead right at the stroke of half time with another blistering run past T&T’s defence, only for her low, accurate shot to be kept out by a smart save by Eligon’s feet.

It was one of several key saves from Eligon, who more than made up for her first-half errors, while her handling seemed to improve as the game went on.

The hosts made a purposeful start to the second half, which paid off shortly after kickoff.

From an acute angle at the edge of the penalty box, Ali exchanged passes with playmaker Asha James before somehow lifting the ball over the Puerto Rico goalkeeper.

As quickly as the heads of the Trinidad and Tobago players rose, they fell again. Puerto Rico were shaken for all of 60 seconds before retaking control of the match.

Just five minutes later, Ralph inadvertently tackled a teammate and the ball fell into the path of the visiting captain, Aguilera, who walloped a left-footed strike past Eligon.

Tobago Chicas forward Talia Martin replaced Tsaianne Leander in attack for the last half-hour and had an immediate impact, as she drew a foul in a dangerous area. But the Women Warriors lost much of their earlier spark and seemed unlikely to claw back a point, far less a victory.

In the end, both teams had about the same number of shots on and off target and were otherwise evenly matched, with Puerto Rico far more dangerous on set plays.

“Ï think we lacked composure at critical times during the game,” said Hood. “And for whatever reasons, the energy levels were not what we were looking for. At the end of the day, we didn’t execute in a way we wanted to.

“We knew coming in that we needed to get something from the match. We needed to get at least a point. To get three points, it’s huge.

“[But] it’s not the end story and anything can happen in the [return leg]—we have to be aware of that.”

Hood pointed out that five of his starting 11 players are not attached to a club, which he said puts Trinidad and Tobago at a disadvantage against their Concacaf rivals.

Puerto Rico head coach Keishawn Cordier suggested that last night’s match was a better gauge of talent for both squads, since they were under less pressure than against group favourites, Mexico.

“The Mexico game is hard to get an assessment of the players because both teams (Puerto Rico and T&T) played under a lot of duress,” said Cordier, “so we saw [last night] a lot of players that have talent and are good technically on the ball, who you couldn’t really identify in the Mexico game [but] showed up in this game. That was surprising.

“So, the players have to be aware of this going into the second leg.”

(Teams)

Trinidad and Tobago (4-3-3): 1.Simone Eligon (GK); 19.Christa Waterman, 8.Victoria Swift, 14.Karyn Forbes (captain), 20.Abigail Moos; 12.Maria-Frances Serrant, 4.Chelcy Ralph, 9.Zoe Maxwell; 10.Asha James (6.Chrissy Mitchell 85), 15.Tsaianne Leander (13.Talia Martin 59), 7.Alexcia Ali (17.Jonelle Warrick-Cato 71).

Unused substitutes: 21.Maria Figgener (GK), 22.Malaika Dedier (GK), 2.Crystal Molineaux, 3.Tamara Johnson, 5.Renee Mike, 11.Tsai-Anne Fernandez, 16.Brittney Williams, 18.Naomie Guerra, 23.Taliah Simon.

Coach: Richard Hood

Puerto Rico (4-3-3): 1.Jlo Varda Vazquez (GK); 2.Veronica Garcia, 5.Madison Cox, 20.Imani Morlock, 4.Idelys Vazquez (16.Amber Diorio 71); 18.Josephine Cotto (22.Katsi Bengoa), 14.Jillienne Aguilera (captain), 8.Skylynn Rodriguez (21.Olivia Bevilacqua); 17.Juelle Love, 9.Gloria Douglas (19.Susana Roberts 69), 11.Christina Torres (15.Eva Andersen 90+3).

Unused substitutes: 12.Isabel Ackerman (GK), 7.Jessica Torres, 6.Sarah Martinez, 10.Laura Suarez.

Coach: Keishawn Cordier

Referee: Sandra Benitez (El Salvador)

W Gold Cup qualifier

(Fri 27 Oct)

Trinidad and Tobago 1 (Alexcia Ali 49), Puerto Rico 2 (Skylynn Rodriguez 30, Jillienne Aguilera 54)

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