Jamaica edge T&T in first of two-match series; Kaihim shines while Chaves debuts

Twenty-two debutants; 15 substitutes; one yellow card; closed doors; ungodly 3pm start.

Outside of that, it was a typically attritional encounter between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica, with the visitors coming away with a hard-fought 1-0 win.

One of Jamaica’s 13 debutants, 19-year-old Kaheim Dixon, scored the only goal of the match to give the Reggae Boyz first blood in the two-match senior international friendly series.

The teenager got on the end of a ball that caught the Trinidad and Tobago back four off-guard and went on to side-foot past goalkeeper Adrian Foncette to notch the winner.

Trinidad and Tobago had chances at the end of the first half with right-sided midfielder Kaihim Thomas at the heart of their best moments. However, Jamaica grew stronger in the closing 15 minutes of the game, with Christopher Biggette making a superb stop to deny Jamaica late.

But, in the end, Dixon’s goal stood as the match-winner.

Trinidad and Tobago head coach Angus Eve lamented the concession of the goal.

“Unfortunately, we gave away a very soft goal and we could not get ourselves back,” he said. “A little lack of belief and that happens when players are not accustomed to playing at this level consistently.”

About an hour before Dixon’s yells of delight filled the empty stadium, Eve gave six of his starters their international debuts.

Liam Burns, Justin Obikwu, Kai Garvey, Shervohnez Hamilton, Kaihim Thomas and Kai Moos made their bows. In Justin Sadoo’s case, it was his first international start.

Foncette and fellow veteran Police FC player Robert Primus were recalled to the national team.

With only a few days to mould a new collection of players, Eve said he opted to structure the team around the positions they play with their clubs.

“Garvey is a good winger—he is coming from Canada [and] he was recommended to us,” said Eve. “Obikwu is a centre-forward and a number nine. We allowed the guys to play in their comfortable positions.

“Kaihim Thomas is a right-sided player. Kai Moos in midfield, and Justin Sadoo in midfield. Nathaniel Garcia unfortunately got a head injury and then Gibson came on and played the same position [in central midfield].

“We didn’t want to do too much experimenting and we allowed the players to play the [positions] that they play with their clubs because the time was so short.”

As the game progressed, Jamaica began to pose problems, as their pace plus the blistering heat sapped away at the home team’s confidence.

Thomas and Obikwu—the latter a Grimsby Town player—replied with their own moments of quality, as the Soca Warriors pushed back.

Thomas had a half-chance to score just before the interval, after a superb turn on the edge of the opposing area. But the ball would not sit down for the Defence Force schemer and, by the time he put his foot on it, the Jamaican defenders had recovered.

The game’s tempo waned in the second half with more holes appearing in the Warriors’ defence.

“It is going to be difficult for them guys coming from where they are coming and trying to adjust in just a couple of days of work,” said Eve. “I thought they adjusted well. They tried to bring the strengths that they had to the group.

“We lost our shape a little as the game went along. We probably as a group panicked a little bit. That’s natural when you have players who are not accustomed and when they are under pressure—and they have not been under that type of pressure before—they make some simple errors.”

Dixon, who made life difficult for Hamilton and Primus on the right side of the T&T defence, took his moment.

“It was one simple ball that beat the whole back line when we should have been deeper at that point in time,” said Eve. “We didn’t have any cover at all.”

Dixon’s goal was not a tap-in by any means, as he ran to an incisive pass and sent the football scuttling into the far corner for the game’s only item.

Eve said his front-line, including Obikwu and Canada-based Garvey, started to fade in the sunshine, which prompted a couple late changes.

Seventeen-year-old Fatima College student Michael Chaves, who represented Trinidad and Tobago at the Concacaf Under-20 qualifying series, played for the closing 10 minutes.

Jamaica replaced nine of their starting players in the second half, with eight of those coming on between the 60th and 85th minutes.

And the Boyz might have doubled their lead in second half stoppage time but for the bucket hands of Biggette, who smothered a fierce drive by forward Shaniel Thomas.

There was no applause and approbation to greet the win for Jamaica, nor groans and Anglo-Saxon expletives to mark the home team’s loss. With Carifta Trials scheduled for the Hasely Crawford Stadium this weekend, the international friendly was not open to the public—so as to better preserve the venue.

Eve said that he was forced to take a 3pm kickoff.

“I lamented in [my] last interviews that it is a massive challenge for us to get pitches to train on,” he said. “We want to qualify for all these other tournaments and just to train is a challenge.

“There are pitches that do not have bathrooms. There are pitches that do not have water. There are pitches that do not have lights.

“We have to be scrambling to have a pitch to train on and a pitch to play on. We have to hustle off the pitch, so they [can] get ready for the [Carifta] Games that they are preparing for over the weekend.

“That is the kind of priority we put over the football.”

The brace of matches against Jamaica was organized to offer match practice ahead of the Concacaf Nations Cup Play-Off against Canada on 23 March.

Despite the loss, Eve felt it was a useful exercise.

“I’ve said in the past that we need exercises like this outside of the window so we can give locally-based players that prerequisite experience and exposure that they would need when they come into the tournaments,” he said. “We don’t have the Caribbean Cup anymore where Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy broke out.

 

“I remember ‘Gally’ (Cummings) had two teams, one qualifying for the World Cup and one playing in the Shell Cup, the Caribbean Cup. We see what it does for Africa.

“The European Cup is coming. But we do not have a Caribbean Cup to expose our young players.”

One player who has taken to the spotlight this year is 17-year-old Chaves, although Eve suggested the young attacker is still recovering from their elimination after the National Under-20 Team’s 3-0 loss to Canada.

“He was a bit dejected when he joined us, so we wanted to give him a little gee up,” said Eve. “We planned to give him 10 minutes in the game and have him train with the guys. He has not looked out of place in training whatsoever.

“He is a good player from what we all saw. At the time of the game, when he went on, it was a little difficult for him, but you could see, he was up to it.

“He wanted to make runs and he is not scared to get the ball. These kinds of experiences will only augur well for him in the future.”

Eve hinted that Jamaica would face stiffer opposition on Sunday, when they play in front of spectators from 4pm at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Malabar.

“I said that we would give everybody a fair opportunity to play so we could get to see them,” he said. “Then we would pick the final squad. So yes, you might see something completely different in the next game.”

Eve said the missing ingredient yesterday was belief.

“I would give the guys 75 percent and I think that the other 25 percent would have been the belief,” he said. “When we […] put down the ball, we created a couple of great instances. We didn’t do it consistently over the 90 minutes and I think that was the difference.

“Defensively we were not bad. In the midfield, we were not bad but we were not brave enough forward and I think that was the difference in the game.”

(Teams)

Trinidad and Tobago (4-2-3-1): 21.Adrian Foncette (GK, captain) (1.Christopher Biggette GK  62); 2.Liam Burns (16.Alvin Jones 90+3), 4.Josiah Trimmingham, 12.Robert Primus (5.Jamal Jack 80), 18.Shervohnez Hamilton; 19.Kai Moos, 7.Nathaniel Garcia (15.Rhondel Gibson 22); 17.Kaihim Thomas, 23.Justin Sadoo, 13.Kai Garvey (20.Kaile Auvray 80); 11.Justin Obikwu (24.Michael Chaves 80)

Unused substitutes: 22.Denzil Smith (GK), 2.Ross Russell Jr, 6.Kevon Goddard, 8.Michel Poon-Angeron, 9.Nathaniel James, 10.Duane Muckette, 14.John-Paul Rochford.

Coach: Angus Eve

Jamaica (4-4-2): 13.Kemar Foster (GK, captain) (1.Jaiden Hibbert GK 61); 14.Sue-Lae Mc Calla (22.Emelio Rousseau 80), 17.Garth Stewart (5.Richard King 73), 19.Stephen Young (2.Joel Cunningham), 15.Ricardo Thomas (3.Kyle Ming 85); 8.Alex Marshall (7.Andre Fletcher 68), 16.Jamone Shepherd, 6.Jashaun Anglin (18.Shamour Smith 80), 21.Kaheim Dixon (11.Shaniel Thomas 85); 9.Fabian Reid; 12.Devonte Campbell 68), 10.Justin Dunn.

Unused substitutes: 4.Romario Guthrie, 20.Jason Wright, 23.Shaquan Davis.

Coach: Heimir Hallgrimsson

Referee: Nikolai Nyron

International Friendly result

(Friday 1 March)

Trinidad and Tobago 0, Jamaica 1 (Kaheim Dixon 56) at Hasely Crawford Stadium.