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Just a few days after a rough friendly outing away to Lima, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-17 Men’s football team got another gut punch last night, as they fell 1-0 to Barbados at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo in their opening Fifa Under-17 World Cup qualifier.
With further group A matches to come against Saint Martin, Sint Maarten—don’t confuse them—and Concacaf giants Mexico, could coach Randolph Boyce and his team be saying farewell to their World Cup prospects after just 90 minutes of football?
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
It may be a tough pill to swallow for some, but with Concacaf’s cut-throat qualifying system seeing only the eight group winners advancing to the next stage, it already looks like a Herculean task from here.
And keep in mind, the young Mexicans haven’t graced the Hasely Crawford field with their presence yet, as they will play Sint Maarten in their first game from 4pm on Thursday.
From 7pm on Thursday, Trinidad and Tobago will play Saint Martin, who kicked off the group with a 3-0 win over Sint Maarten.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
Before that, as he said at the mixed zone after the match, the Trinidad and Tobago coach will have to watch film and see exactly how Barbados out-fought and out-muscled his unit, before opposing defender Adam King headed in the game’s lone goal in the 75th minute.
Barbados coach Marlon Harte explained that King, fellow centre back Jacob Gollop, and goalkeeper Kaliq Lashley all form part of the team’s leadership group.
It was no surprise then that all three players were integral to the team’s success on the night.
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Both Gollop and King made timely tackles and goal-saving interventions to help keep the clean sheet—much of which came after sloppy defensive play in the first instance—while Lashley made the save of the game in the 85th minute, when he spread like an eagle to keep out a close-range shot from substitute J’meke Watkins.
At the blow of the final whistle, Harte’s staff and his players celebrated as though they had just qualified for the World Cup, while Boyce was left to ponder what could have been.
“The boys played well—we created a lot of opportunities and it’s just to work on putting away the opportunities,” Boyce said. “We had good moments in the game. We just need to see how we can go and fine-tune that.”
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Though the loss is obviously a disastrous one in the circumstances, Boyce said he can’t be too harsh on his players.
“They’re young,” he said. “We definitely have to keep motivating them. We have to pick them up from where they’re at now.
“The only thing to do is motivate them and encourage them to be able to play, because, as much as we might want to win and we need to win, it’s much [more] about developing them and teaching them the right things in the right way.
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“It makes no sense being [tough] on them. It’s just to keep motivating them to go forward from here.”
From a statistical point of view, Trinidad and Tobago had the better of the exchanges—as they had 14 shots to 12 from the Bajans, with five of the 14 being on target compared to two from the visitors.
Trinidad and Tobago also had 63.7% possession, although the bigger story perhaps lies in where this was maintained.
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To try to negate the Bajans’ physical prowess, Boyce instructed his team to play a possession-based game. However, that time on the ball rarely involved intricate combos for the midfield trio of Donovan Drayton, Canadian-based Christian Pitt and captain Jeremiah Daniel.
Rather, the home team’s forays often came in the form of hopeful punts to lone forward Adasa Richardson, isolated wing play from Kanye Glasgow, and one enterprising surge from left back Akel Vesprey.
“We wanted to try and keep the ball more and take [away] that physical and aggressive style that they play,” Boyce said. “[We wanted to] try and take that out of the game so we could be able to control the game.
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“But a lot of things we did in training and in games […] I don’t know if it was because it was the first game tonight that we didn’t execute what we usually do.”
The home team’s best first-half chance came after just nine minutes when Lashley took an ill-advised jog out of his area, with Richardson sending a lobbed effort towards goal.
Gollop galloped to clean up Richardson’s attempt, but after a weak clearance, he needed to stand firm on the line to keep out a firm, low drive from Drayton.
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Nippy and with a trick or two up his sleeve, Richardson normally feasts in wide areas. However, the physicality from Gollop and King was a lot for a lone striker to contend with, while Pitt didn’t set the world alight in the “number ten” role.
A pity then that Richardson’s Naparima College teammate Riquelme Phillips couldn’t be coaxed into wearing national colours, while a gritty, box-to-box option in San Juan North Secondary’s Daniel Lewis watched on from the stands.
At the half, Boyce made his first move as versatile Naparima flanker Sebastian James came on for Glasgow, with his second change coming just after the hour, when Antuan Louison entered the fray for Pitt.
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Those changes did little to inspire Trinidad and Tobago, as they looked more likely to profit from a defensive lapse from their guests, rather than a fluent sequence of play which opened the Barbados defence—evidenced by Gollop’s recovery block on Richardson in the 60th minute, after a loose piece of control by the former on the halfway line.
After King’s goal, Boyce promptly brought on two attack-minded players in Watkins and Jasai Theophilus in the 77th minute, while playmaker Finn De Freitas entered just four minutes later.
In 15 minutes, De Freitas had an arguably greater influence than any other Trinidad and Tobago midfielder, while he spanked a left-footer just wide with his first touch in the 82nd minute.
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Did Boyce miss a trick by inserting De Freitas so late? The St Benedict’s College coach begged to differ.
“No, I don’t think Finn came on too late,” said Boyce. “The team is a physical team. Finn isn’t a physical player. We think we picked the moment to put him on where he could be able to affect the game in a positive way.
“The other substitutes, we wanted to get them playing a little tighter inside and be a little more direct because at that point we had to chase the game. They came on and did that.
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“It created one or two moments where we had one-on-one on goal, but unfortunately, we didn’t put it away.”
Watkins was denied twice in the dying embers. First, by a brilliant retreating tackle from Tye Waterman, and then by the sprawling Lashley.
Harte and his players celebrated heartily last night, but he assured their supporters that they’d be back down to business by the crack of dawn.
Photo: Nicholas Bhajan/ Wired868.
“It’s a testament to the hard work of not just myself, but the other coaches back home, and what we’re trying to do,” said the Barbados coach. “We’ve been on the end of some losses against Trinidad and Tobago, so it’s very fulfilling to be on the winning side.”
On Saturday, Barbados hope to ride that wave when they face Sint Maarten.
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Roneil Walcott is an avid sports fan and freelance reporter with a BA in Mass Communication from COSTAATT. Roneil is a former Harvard and St Mary’s College cricketer who once had lofty aspirations of bringing joy to sport fans with the West Indies team. Now, his mission is to keep them on the edge of their seats with sharp commentary from off the playing field.
