Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under-17 men’s team played to a 0–0 draw with Super League champions T&TEC in a training match at the Ato Boldon Stadium, yesterday.Preparing for their upcoming Concacaf qualifiers against Jamaica and Guatemala, the Under-17s received a good test from their senior opponents who had former national defender Anthony Noreiga in their line-up.
Both teams created a few chances of their own on the heavy surface. Neither team could find the net as the last 20 minutes were played in near darkness, even though the T&TEC outfit seemed desperate to grab a late winner.
Head coach Shawn Cooper said he was satisfied with the outing. “I thought the game served its purpose.
We defended deep and tried to play the game from there and we got the kind of challenge which allowed me to see what kind of progress we are making in relation to that part of our game.
“What we have to keep working on is making a faster transition from when we win the ball in defence and to go forward. “I thought we created more of the clear cut chances and hopefully now we can sharpen up on our finishing,” Cooper said.U-17 coach happy with practice match effort.
T&T Express Reports.
National Under 17 team football coach Shawn Cooper likes what he saw in his team's performance against Super League champions T&TEC despite the game finishing 0-0 at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Thursday evening.
Both teams went at each other on a heavy outfield from the opening whistle and created goalscoring chances on either side of the interval but neither could break the deadlock.
The exercise itself turned out to be a worthwhile one for the Under 17s who are preparing for the final round of Concacaf Under-17 qualifying round next month in Montego Bay. T&T face Jamaica on February 15 and Guatemala two days later.
"It wasn't a bad result. It's just applying what we learned in the past few weeks. We kept T&TEC away from our goal in that they had shots only from 30-40 yards out. We defended well and I'm pleased with what I saw this afternoon," Cooper told TTFF media.
The ex-Naparima College and W Connection coach is not worried about his team's inability to find the net on Thursday.
"We are not in that our phase of our preparations. I am more concerned about not conceding because once we don't concede... we will score."
"I think in the last three weeks (we) will start to focus more on the combination plays on top of the 18 yard box. We will get there but we have to work with the time we have. At the end of the day, come Jamaica, we will know if the tournament was good enough," Cooper added.
"I think this bunch of guys are very confident in themselves and are arrogant in that they feel they cannot be beaten. As you saw today, they played man to man against the team and that's a good sign for us. Of course we don't want to get too complacent.
Commenting on his tenure so far as head coach, Cooper said: "It's been good so far. I've been talking with the other senior coaches and getting advice.
I will take what I think is good to put in my pocket for the benefit of the team. Youth development officer Anton Corneal has been instrumental in guiding me in certain areas like where we need to strengthen on.
At the end of the day, I must see Shawn Cooper on the football field in terms of how the team plays. I like to see good all round football and we're working towards producing a good brand of football out there on the playing field."
The team is expected to visit Venezuela later this month for a couple of training matches and will continue their build up at home with weekend live-in training camps along with sessions during the week at the Ato Boldon Stadium.