| REACTIONS AFTER THE DRAW...COACHES PLEASED WITH SHOWING |
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 Jamaica's head coach Rene Simoes described his team’s last gasp draw courtesy of an 89th minute penalty against Trinidad and Tobago as a fitting result for both countries as they firm up their preparations for the start of their 2010 qualifying campaign on the weekend.
Simoes, speaking during the post-match press conference at the Marvin Lee Stadium on Sunday night didn’t use any words to suggest that his team should have come away with a win rather saying that neither team deserved to lose the encounter.
“For me what was satisfying is that both teams played with a World Cup spirit. This is what you want to see for the World Cup qualifying… this type of fight and passion to play the game,” Simoes said.
“I don’t think a win would have been better for Trinidad or Jamaica. But what you saw was a both teams playing for everything. I think they are now ready for the start of the qualification as you are seeing that kind of football that is needed for the qualifying matches.”
The Brazilian complimented his 19-year-old defender Evan Taylor for his performance on the evening.
Assistant T&T coach Anton Corneal, present in place of Francisco Maturana due to the absence of the Colombian’s interpreter for media-related activities, had similar views to Simoes but was hard on some of the refereeing decisions by Barbados’ Rayon Small.
“It’s not customary for us as coaches to bring this up but we felt that a lot of the decisions by the referee were against us for obvious reasons or for reasons we just couldn’t see and I think everyone who saw the match with agree with this. That is not the best thing for players and teams when such decisions throughout a game can have such an impact on the outcome. But we will live with it but definitely we feel the selection of referees for games like these need to be looked at very carefully,” Corneal said.
Simoes said he would have to look over the television replay which resulted in Jamaica’s late penalty but didn’t appear too convincing that he felt it was the right call.
“I don’t say much about referees. They have their job to do and I don’t even get involved with them. Sometimes we have a decision against us and other times we get it in our favour. Today it could be for me and next week it’s against me,” Simoes added.
Corneal further added: “We felt that the team lifted it’s game from the loss to England but again it could do with the fact too that it’s a different level of opposition. But yes we are pleased with the showing today and it shows that the team is coming to come and this augers well for us going into a World Cup qualifying tournament,” said Corneal who credited the team, particularly Khaleem Hyland, Jason Scotland and Clayton Ince for their display.
The T&T team resumes training on Tuesday at the Ato Boldon Stadium ahead of Sunday’s World Cup qualifier against Bermuda. (June 7, 2008)
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