By FRANCIS JOSEPH
It was not the result we would have wanted!
For the second consecutive match, the Trinidad and Tobago Senior Men’s Football team threw away a lead to end up losing.
After leading 2-1 against Haiti in Jamaica on September 24, we allowed two late goals by the Haitians to snatch a 3-2 victory.
On Sunday night at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in the Concacaf Nations League A, we squandered the lead to lose 1-2 to leave the national team heading for an exit. We have two more matches in the preliminary stage – home and away against Curacao on October 1 and 4.
Added to our woes, Haiti won their second straight game on Sunday night – 2-0 against Costa Rica, while Curacao destroyed Nicaragua 6-0. Where does that leave us?
After the match, local coach Derek King, yet to win a match, said, “We played well, we scored a goal in the first half. Then we allowed a soft goal. In the second half, we saw good ball movement. We created chances but goal win matches. That was the difference today between both teams. You saw the Dominican Republic took their chances.”
He continued, “It is important we finish the series well. We have two important games against Curacao away and home. The guys are down at this moment. In the second half, we saw some good ball movements, we created the chances. It is really sad we did not come out with a result in this game. The front five had a good game, is just we did not put away our chances.”
Playing their first home match, Trinidad and Tobago took a 1-0 lead through Daniel Phillips in the 37th minute. But Heinz Mörschel equalized in the 42nd, before Mariano DÃaz scored in the 50th minute to make the DR 2-1.
Trinidad and Tobago could have gone one up in the second minute with captain Levi Garcia forcing Dominican Republic goalkeeper Xavier Valdez to scramble across his goal a deflected effort from just outside the penalty area.
Moments later, our defence was exposed when DÃaz found space straight through the middle. But poor finishing resulted in a missed chance.
Having tested Valdez minutes earlier, Phillips gave the small crowd something to cheer when he collected a loose ball at the edge of the penalty area before producing a superb half-volley with the outside of his right foot.
But the advantage lasted only five minutes, as Mörschel was allowed too much time and space to shoot from long range in the 42nd minute, leaving goalkeeper Jabari Brice helpless as the visitors drew level.
Try as they may, the local team failed to capitalize on chances and went down…again…with the likelihood of bowing out of the League.
