Photo Credits: T&T Sport Diary
With a revamped lineup, Trinidad and Tobago were given the business in a 4-0 shutout against Venezuela on day 2 of the Trinidad and Tobago Youth Invitational Tournament, at the Haseley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain yesterday.
The Trinidad and Tobago Under 15 team were looking to bounce back after the loss in an exciting game against Panama on Wednesday. The National Under 16 Girls team were supposed to feature in the opening game against Curaçao but their game was cancelled after the Curaçao team couldn’t make the trip to Trinidad due to flight issues on their end.
The Under 15 Boys team played in the later game against Venezuela, who are also searching for their first win of the tournament after their loss against Mexico on Wednesday.
Head coach Stuart Charles Fevrier made seven changes from Wednesday’s team, with Molik Khan, Dawn St. Rose Abdul-Quddoos Hypolite and Jaron Pascall being the only mainstays from Wednesday. The reason there were so many changes were due to a rule in the tournament stating that each player must play a minimum of sixty minutes in the tournament.
In the first half, it was the Venezuelans who would score first when Davi Hernandez received a clean through ball and shot it past goalkeeper Tristan Edwards in the 22nd minute.
In the 44th it was Venezuela again as Carlos Torres scored off a corner. After T&T initially got it out of the penalty area, another ball was sent in from the side the corner was taken, and Carlos Torres, seeing that Edwards was off his line, he swept it over Edwards and landed in the net of the goal for the 2nd time before halftime.
It was more of the same Venezuelan dominance in 2nd half, almost scoring on a couple more chances. Later on, Coach Fevrier made a platoon swap of substitutions bringing on Wednesday’s starters, Nathaniel James, Jaheim Marshall, Josiah Wilson and Ja-Shawn Thomas to try to improve the scoreline.
But Venezuela would continue to pour it on. In the 78th minute, Klinsmann Gomez dribbled his way to the top of the box, adjusted himself and curled his effort around Edwards for Venezuela’s third goal of the night. The Venezuelans would cap off the night with Edwin Britto won the ball in the box after a brilliant pass and easily slotted it past Edwards again in the 4th minute of stoppage time, sealing off the 4-0 victory.
Speaking after the match, coach Fevrier had some comments after the match
Starting with the team’s performance:
“We were very disappointing tonight in our performance. Venezuela definitely was better than us. They deserved to win. From my point of view, we would only learn from this experience.”
Stuart Charles Fevrier, 2019
Commenting on the way that Venezuelan Under-15 team played:
“We came up against a South American style of football: a lot of short passes, a lot of rotation. It was our first time playing against that style of play, and to me we should play more against teams that play that style of football. Our team had trouble coping against the movement and the rotation of the Venezuelans. The way they support the ball, the way they always have numbers around the ball, the way they rotate. Their technical ability, their very technical, very skillful, and their game understanding as well.”
Stuart Charles Fevrier, 2019
He also spoke about his team lineup today and emphasising the importance of development for the Under-15 players:
“Today I had to rotate the team because every player must get 60 minutes of playing time so I could not have started today with our best possible team. But having said that, I was happy to start the other players. I didn’t have a problem with it, because I think it is good that every player gets a chance to develop because it is about development as well. Yes we would like to win, but like I said, this is about development just as much as trying to win. And ur boys would only learn from that experience, playing against such opposition and playing against different styles of play.”
Stuart Charles Fevrier, 2019
In the earlier game, the two winners from Wednesday, Mexico and Panama ended in a 1-1 draw with Reymundo Williams on the score sheet again for the third time this tournament in the 19th minute and Mexico scoring in the 42nd thanks to Kevin Madrigal.
Trinidad and Tobago will play the final game of the Youth Invitational today against Mexico at 7:15 pm at the Ato Boldon Stadium. Panama and Venezuela will face off in the earlier game at 5:15 pm.
PHOTO CREDITS: T&T SPORT DIARY
Q Sports 