National Under 17 head coach Anton Corneal described Tuesday’s 6-2 defeat to Dutch Premier Division club De Graafschap as an eye opener for his team as they go into the final days of the preparation camp at the Papendal training centre in Arnhem.
T&T were forced on the defensive from early on as they conceded much too easily and struggled to force themselves back into the game against the Under 18 team which included three Dutch National Under 17 players.
“I was very disappointed in their attitude towards the game,” Corneal told TTFF Media as he described the performance of his players.
“We don’t understand what it takes to play from the beginning… we have not come out of this since all of us needing to put out from the beginning. We still think we have to feel teams out and before anything happened for us we were down three goals and all three were blunders at the back. On the other hand you have to look at he chances we squandered. We should have come out at half time 3-3,” Corneal added.
“When you do finishing in the morning session and then come and get similar chances in the game it shows that we weren’t doing the extra that is required to get results. We had a little bit better second half but it was the only time we showed some effort and pride and we got chances where we scored two goals but it must not take a team to dominate us like that before we start to play. It’s better though that this happens now than at the World Cup and I hope we can learn from this.”
“We saw that when we decided to pressure we created chances but I hope this will be an eye opener because we have spoken about it many times. One team can take advantage of our faults and we need to prevent that. The team was well organized and played simple while we were the opposite for too much of the game,” Corneal ended as he refused to use the long travel and six-hour time difference as an excuse for the team’s lackluster showing under chilly conditions. Despite Akeem Adams blistering strike and Marcus Joseph’s goal off the bench after a good build up, only skipper Leston Paul managed a decent showing as his teammates were all guilty of unforced errors and lack of urgency in their play.
Senior Team head coach Wim Rijsbergen was also hopeful of the team stepping up its game as the build up continues to the August 20 opener against Ghana at the FIFA Under 17 World Championship.
The T&T U17 team will have a final training match on Saturday and will also attend a preseason encounter between La Liga club Athletico Bilbao and Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem. Corneal conducted a recovery session on Wednesday morning before meeting with the players for just over an hour prior to the evening session at Papendal.