T&T get a handful as USA rough up immigrants in Gold Cup opener

The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team began their 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup campaign with an embarrassing 5-0 defeat today, as the Soca Warriors had no answer for a rampant USA team at PayPark in California.

It’s a matter of public record now that the United States is not particularly gracious to immigrants these days. By halftime, poor Alvin Jones looked like he would prefer a showdown with ICE officials than to face head coach Dwight Yorke, after his two costly errors gifted the hosts a 2-0 advantage.

But it would be harsh to put this result on any one player, least of all a player like Jones who practically runs through walls for his country on the international stage.

The Soca Warriors simply were not up to the job, even against a United States team without seven of their best players, including AC Milan attacker Christian Pulisic and the Juventus pair of midfielder Weston McKennie and forward Timothy Weah.

Despite those absences and even after four successive defeats, USA head coach Mauricio Pochettino opted to leave his most experienced players on the bench today. Eight of the starting XI for the “Stars and Stripes” had fewer than 10 international caps.

Did Pochettino see something comforting while scouting Yorke’s troops?

For one, it has been evident for some time that Trinidad and Tobago, under current management, does not have a convincing method of getting the ball back, beyond blocking passing lanes and hoping their opponents would oblige them with loose passes.

And USA did not oblige.

For the first 15 minutes, Yorke’s starting team, deployed in a 3-5-1-1 formation, looked like they might as well have been groomsmen at Levi Garcia’s wedding back in Trinidad.

USA moved the ball around at will, as their guests chased after them like butlers. The Trinidad and Tobago players did not lack effort; they lacked a cohesive defensive plan.

Against Costa Rica, Yorke used a 3-5-2 formation but found that his new, highly vaunted recruit, Dante Sealy, did not fit in.

Sealy was terrific on the flank when T&T used a 4-3-3 shape against Saint Kitts and Nevis last week. But, unlike Tyrese Spicer, Sealy is not a credible option at wingback and was anonymous in Central America as a forward.

So, Yorke kept the back three formation and benched Sealy.

It would be grasping at straws to suggest the match would have been much different if Yorke had used a different shape from the start. But at least he would have had closer to his best 11 players on the field.

In the 16th minute, USA took the lead. The opening goal was inevitable. The hosts did not need much help in getting on the scoreboard—but they got it anyway.

Jones, unusually tentative, was caught in possession by opposing striker Patrick Agyeman on top of his own box, and the Yankees streamed into the opposing area.

Somebody forgot to text Isaiah Garcia. The right wingback’s recovery run was about as convincing as Stuart Young’s campaign to be opposition leader. And USA attacker Malik Tillman had time to control the ball inside the six-yard box before hitting past the cruelly exposed Trinidad and Tobago goalkeeper Marvin Phillip.

Phillip consoled Jones. Anybody could make a bad mistake.

But in the 40th minute, Jones produced an encore that nobody wanted. Well, nobody except opposing playmaker Diego Luna, who spotted the ill-advised back pass and gleefully accepted the offer.

And Luna squared for Tillman’s second item.

USA’s third goal came as Trinidad and Tobago sent numbers upfront and the hosts countered with a long, diagonal ball to Luna, who stepped inside Jones to blast towards goal. And his effort took a decisive deflection off Agyemang to beat Phillip in the 44th minute.

At halftime, the game already looked like a damage limitation exercise. Trinidad and Tobago’s last two meetings against USA at the Gold Cup ended in 6-0 drubbings: under coach Dennis Lawrence in 2019 and Angus Eve in 2023.

Welcome to the party, Dwight.

The first half stats? USA had 77% possession with 13 shots (six on target) to zero and 293 accurate passes to 68. It was a mismatch.

Yorke made three changes at the interval as Sealy, Nathaniel James, and Andre Raymond replaced Noah Powder, Isaiah Lee and Jones, respectively, while he changed to a 4-3-3 formation.

But the fact that Phillip had to make two saves in the opening two minutes of the second half spoke volumes.

Spicer, now receiving the ball in more advanced areas, looked immediately more threatening, though. He turned Alexander Freeman and Sebastian Berhalter into cones in the 55th minute before winning a free kick.

And, two minutes later, Spicer produced Trinidad and Tobago’s best attacking move of the night as he turned cleverly with a long diagonal ball from Daniel Phillips and sent a low, raking cross into the area that would surely have been turned over the line but for a crucial intervention from USA custodian Matthew Freese.

James, tricky and alert, had defender Mark McKenzie at full stretch to thwart his snap shot in the 76th minute and forced a save from Freese in the 83rd minute.

Yet, USA scored twice more through bad collective defending from Yorke’s team.

Veteran defender Sheldon Bateau should have expected some sort of cover when Brenden Aaronson stepped inside him in the 81st minute. But there was nobody there.

Justin Garcia was preoccupied with marking an attacker at the far post, and none of the midfielders had tucked in. It was a breakdown in shape. And Aaronson beat the overworked Phillip at his near post—probably too easily.

Three minutes later, another USA substitute, Haji Wright, said: I’d have some of that please. So he ran into space down the right side of the Trinidad and Tobago defence, stepped inside Bateau and picked his corner for USA’s fifth.

The Warriors were beginning to resemble a buffet by then.

Thankfully, there would not be a sixth.

Yorke might console himself, too, by pointing to an improved showing after the break, although the match was long finished by then. And, of course, Levi Garcia would be back soon—and hopefully with a newlywed glow that rubs off on his teammates.

USA are ranked 16th in the world. Trinidad and Tobago will not have to face them again in the Gold Cup or, thankfully, in the 2026 World Cup qualifying series.

Haiti, ranked 83rd in the world, are up next.

Despite the buzz around the team because of Yorke’s more expressive style of play, along with a clearly settled dressing room, it is still notable that the Soca Warriors are yet to defeat a higher-ranked team under his watch.

And, if you’re serious about getting to the World Cup, you have to be capable of flooring some giants when you’re ranked 100th yourselves.

Should Trinidad and Tobago be expecting a World Cup spot? Of course not. Yorke and his players cannot be reasonably expected to overturn roughly a decade of poor administrative decisions inside 10 months.

However, fans might feel that a clear vision from the Soca Warriors on and off the ball is a fair return on the rookie coach’s considerable salary.

They would hope to improve on that measure by Thursday evening against Haiti.

(Teams)

Trinidad and Tobago (3-5-1-1): 1.Marvin Phillip (GK); 16.Alvin Jones (6.Andre Raymond 46), 4.Sheldon Bateau, 5.Justin Garcia; 24.Isaiah Garcia (17.Rio Cardines 62), 8.Daniel Phillips, 23.Noah Powder (15.Dante Sealy 46), 19.Ajani Fortune, 13.Tyrese Spicer; 10.Kevin Molino (captain) (3.Joevin Jones 73); 26.Isaiah Lee (9.Nathaniel James 46).

Unused substitutes: 21.Jabari St Hillaire (GK), 22.Denzil Smith (GK), 2.Darnell Hospedales, 7.Steffen Yeates, 14.Wayne Frederick II, 18.Andre Rampersad, 20.Real Gill.

Coach: Dwight Yorke.

United States (4-2-3-1): 25.Matt Freese (GK); 16.Alex Freeman, 3.Chris Richards (12.Miles Robinson 83), 13.Tim Ream (captain), 18.Max Arfsten; 8.Sebastian Berhalter, 14.Luca de la Torre (21.Paxten Aaronson 83); 6.Jack McGlynn (22.Mark McKenzie 73), 17.Malik Tillman, 10.Diego Luna (11.Brendon Aaronson 73); 24.Patrick Agyemang (19.Haji Wright 73).

Unused substitutes: 1.Matt Turner (GK), 26.Chris Brady (GK), 2.John Tolkin, 5.Walker Zimmerman, 7.Quinn Sullivan, 20.Nathan Harriel, 23.Brian White.

Coach: Mauricio Pochettino

Referee: Adonai Escobedo (Mexico).

Concacaf Gold Cup

(15 June 2025)

USA 5 (Malik Tillman 16, 41, Patrick Agyemang 44, Brenden Aaronson 82, Haji Wright 84), Trinidad and Tobago 0 at San Jose.

Haiti 0, Saudi Arabia 1 (Saleh Al Shehri 21 pen) at San Diego.