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 Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior footballers put on a disappointing showing and conceded goals on either side of the half to go down 3-0 against the United States in their latest World Cup qualifier at Toyota Park on Wednesday night.
The “Soca Warriors” never settled and conceded in the ninth minute when Michael Bradley got inside two defenders to head home Landon Donovan’s left side free kick. Nothing would go right for the visitors but more would go wrong as nine minutes later, Clint Dempsey made it 2-0 with a powerful right-footed shot into the left side of the net.
Brian Ching added a header in the 57th to round off the scoring for the United States, who virtually guaranteed they will advance to the final "hexagonal" round of qualifying.
T&T slipped to third on the standings behind USA (nine points) and Guatemala (four points) who are ahead on goal difference after coming from a goal down to trounce Cuba 4-1 in Guatemala City. Roberto Linares put the visitors into the lead mid-way through the first half, drawing the hosts' wrath in the process. Guatemala top scorer Carlos Ruiz bagged a pair of goals and Mario Rodriguez and Jorge Contreras added insurance strikes inside the last five minutes.
Francisco Maturana started with the 4-5-1 formation with Cornell Glen being alone up top and Osei Telesford coming into the middle, Aklie Edwards on the left for the suspended Avery John and Makan Hislop coming in for Dennis Lawrence (not injured) alongside Keyeno Thomas in central defense.
As the game progressed, T&T maintained its formation and Glen was given little room. The same went for Keon Daniel and Carlos Edwards as the Americans controlled the pace of game for the majority of minutes.
Only in the second half when Anthony Wolfe came on for Densill Theobald did T&T look like creating some threat on the USA goal.
What appeared to be going right in the last three games against El Salvador, Cuba and Guatemala just seemed to go all wrong at Toyota Park.
“We just never got off,” Glen told TTFF Media. “We had high hopes coming into the game but we never played the football. We conceded soft goals and the bad thing is that we worked on defending those free kicks because we knew that was USA’s strength and we still allowed them get in there easy. I think everybody is disappointed with this.”
Asked by reporters whether he felt he needed a partner to assist him even as the game progressed Glen responded. “It’s difficult to say because it worked in the previous games and yes I know this is America.But the coach makes the decision and as a professional player we have to abide by his call and try our best to work with it. I can’t say whether I was disappointed with his decision at this time. The result is 3-0 and we have to move on and forget about this game. We have to win in Guatemala,” Glen added.
Maturana had no time for excuses but definitely will need the next twenty days to find solutions before T&T travels to play in Guatemala City on October 11.
“What is there to say except for we didn’t play well and we lost the game. I was not happy with our play. We have to go and try to win our next match now and take it from there.”
Asked whether he felt T&T are now in a must win situation against Guatemala and whether he feels similar about the USA game four days later in Port of Spain, Maturana responded: “Before this round we saw that Mexico, USA and maybe Costa Rica would always be among the top three and all the other teams would have to try and compete for fourth and even the third spot. The same goes for the second place in our group. I think there is a possibility that whichever team wins the next game (T&T vs Guatemala), they will advance to the next round. Right now I do not think about the match against USA (in October) but we have to focus on Guatemala.
“I don’t talk too much about players as whatever team you have you try to do the best possible (in response to Dwight Yorke’s late withdrawal). It did not work in our favour tonight. I do not make any excuses but we have to work at it again and pick ourselves up in order to dig deep for our results,” Maturana added.
(With excerpts from Reuters)
“It’s ideal, right?” Landon Donovan said. “We were excellent tonight. The first half was one of the most dominating performances I’ve ever been a part of. We were good all over the field.”
The Americans are 25-1-7 in home qualifiers since May 1985, their only defeat a 3-2 loss to Honduras in September 2001, and have outscored opponents 21-0 on U.S. soil since 2004. They’re also 9-0-2 in World Cup qualifying against T&T.
Though the Americans came in with a four-game winning streak, their offense has been patchy and they eked out 1-0 victories in each of the prior three games — all on the road.
No such problems against T&T, as the Americans got two quick goals in the first 18 minutes.
“That wasn’t important. The most important thing was to win,” Dempsey insisted. “Whether we scored one goal or five, a win is a win.”
DaMarcus Beasley earned the Americans a free kick in the ninth minute when he was tripped up as he sprinted down the left sideline. Second before Carlos Edwards appealed for a definite hand ball offence but Jamaican referee Courtney Campbell was having none of it and Edwards tracked back to commit the foul. Donovan lofted the kick over the scrum in front of the goal and Marvin Phillip had no chance as Bradley flicked the ball into the goal with the right side of his foot.
Donovan pumped his fist when he saw the ball go in, and the rest of the Americans mobbed Beasley. It was Bradley’s third international goal, and second this year.
Nine minutes later, the Americans doubled their lead. Dempsey had the ball on the right side and fed Beasley on a give-and-go. There were four defenders in front of him, but they were lined up flat, and Beasley threaded the ball on a perfect pass to Dempsey, who put it in the far side of the net.
It was the fourth goal in as many games for Dempsey. He had two at home against Barbados, and also scored at Cuba. He did not play when the Americans traveled to Barbados.
“Their defense wasn’t comfortable coming in with (Beasley and Dempsey),” Donovan said. “And if they did come, our outside backs did a good job of getting around them and making it difficult. Time after time, we found little seams, we could turn plays and be dangerous almost every time we had the ball.”
After managing just one shot in the first 45 minutes, the Soca Warriors got much more aggressive in the second half and managed to create a few chances on corner kicks. Steve Cherundolo and Carlos Bocanegra cleared out two, and Oguchi Onyewu knocked another shot to safety just outside the goal.
But the Americans effectively ended the game in the 57th minute. Akile Edwards flipped Cherundolo into the air, drawing a yellow card and giving the United States a free kick. Beasley took it, and Onyewu headed it back toward the goal, only to have Phillip get his hands on it as they collided.
The rebound caromed straight to Ching, though, who was all alone in front of the goal and headed the ball into the net.
“Getting that third goal killed the game,” Donovan said. “They didn’t want to get embarrassed, so three goals is enough.”
The Soca Warriors’ thought they’d avoided the shutout in the 60th minute, when Glenn took a hard shot from just outside the box. American goalkeeper Tim Howard dove to his left and punched the ball away and second-half substitute Anthony Wolfe collected it and quickly put it into the open goal.
Referees quickly whistled it off, and replays showed he was, indeed offsides.
“We’ve not had a game like that in a while,” U.S. coach Bob Bradley said. “We had a few last year, but so far this year, that’s not the game we’ve been in. So it’s good to get things going in the right way.”
In Group 3 on Wednesday, Costa Rica claimed their third win in as many matches with a 3-1 victory over Haiti in Port-au-Prince.
El Salvador stayed in touch with the Group 3 leaders with a 2-0 victory over Surinam in Paramaribo.
Shawn Martin opened the scoring for El Salvador in the opening minute, and Marlon Felter's own goal spelled the end for the hosts as the 2-0 score stood through the final whistle. Mexico won 2-1 at home to Canada and Honduras also won 2-0 at home to Jamaica.
Team Lineups:
T&T: 1-Marvin Phillip; 3-Akile Edwards, 5-Keyeno Thomas, 9-Makan Hislop, 8-Cyd Gray; 17-Keon Daniel, 4-Osei Telesford, 2-Clyde Leon, 7-Carlos Edwards; 12-Densil Theobald (14-Anthony Wolfe, 46), 13-Cornell Glenn
Subs Not Used: 18-Jan-Michael Williams, 6-Dennis Lawrence, 10-Andre Toussaint, 11-Jason Scotland, 15-Kerry Baptiste, 16-Julius James
Head Coach: Francisco Maturana
USA: 1-Tim Howard; 15-Heath Pearce, 3-Carlos Bocanegra-capt., 5-Oguchi Onyewu, 6-Steve Cherundolo; 17-DaMarcus Beasley, 12-Michael Bradley (4-Rico Clark, 67), 16-Sacha Kljestan, 8-Clint Dempsey (7-Eddie Lewis, 78); 10-Landon Donovan, 11-Brian Ching (9-Eddie Johnson, 67)
Subs Not Used: 18-Brad Guzan, 2-Frankie Hejduk, 13-Maurice Edu, 14-Danny Califf
Head Coach: Bob Bradley
Stats Summary: USA / TRI
Shots 11 / 6
Shots on Goal 6 / 2
Saves 1 / 3
Corner Kicks 4 / 5
Fouls 9 / 12
Offside 9 / 1
Misconduct Summary:
TRI – Akile Edwards (caution) 57th minute
USA – Steve Cherundolo (caution) 59.
TRI – Clyde Leon (caution) 59.
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