Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 footballers suffered a narrow 1-0 defeat to United Arab Emirates’ Under 20 team in the first of two warm up internationals in Al Ain on Tuesday.
Head coach Zoran Vranes went into the match without experienced defender Robert Primus who was injured out before the team left Port of Spain, but they were steady throughout at the back with Daneil Cyrus marshalling the back line with support from Akeem Adams, Jevon Morris, Aubrey David and Mikeil Williams who made a return to the starting team from injury.
There was a small crew of some ten Trinidadians residing in Dubai who showed up at the Al Ain Stadium (also known as Al Qatara) in their red shirts and T&T flags and the game was aired live on Dubai Sports Channel in the UAE and other parts of Asia.
Most of the first half belonged to the hosts as they enjoyed better possession while T&T failed to penetrate from the middle of the park and most of the visiting team’s starting eleven appeared jaded after the opening half hour. Strikers Daniel Joseph and Qian Grosvenor didn’t cause much worry for the Emirates defence with the latter occasionally getting into dangerous positions, on two occasions having half decent efforts on goal.
Vranes later admitted that he expected his players would struggle physically due to the long travel from Port of Spain but said he expected they would improve for the remainder of the tour which has seven matches remaining against South Korea, Nigeria, Ghana and one more against the Emirates. The Korean Football Association confirmed on Tuesday that they will make their National Under 20 team available to play T&T in back to back training matches.
“I was not so much disappointed with the 1-0 scoreline even though I felt we could have given a better performance,” Vranes told TTFF Media after the match.
“We expected that the players would be a bit tired but I always ask them to give their best effort and maybe we didn’t see that today. I think we played only after they scored their goal and you would realize that we only troubled them in front of goal in the closing twenty minutes. I am not too worried at this stage because like I said before I believe we are missing one or two key players who will add something to the team and my players in the team now will get better with the other matches we still have to play.”
Midfielders Sean De Silva and Jean Luc Rochford struggled to settle in the encounter while skipper Leston Paul had his occasional cleverness in the middle going forward. But he too failed to find any kind of rhythm. It was only when Vranes introduced Kevin Molino, Marcus Joseph, Juma Clarence and Sherron Joseph, all attacking players, did T&T look purposeful going forward.
Molino went close in the 81st minute when he dragged a left footer wide of the right post from just outside the box.
Goalie Glenroy Samuel also had to make a couple good saves to deny Ali Mabkhool after he was sent through on the left of the box in the 69th and then low down to prevent Ahmad Ali’s fierce effort from going in. Samuel however couldn’t do much to stop Awana’s close range effort after the ball came over from the near left position following a neat one two between Ali and Omer Rahman.
Both teams will meet again at the same venue at 6pm on Wednesday.
T&T line up:
1.Glenroy Samuel, 2.Aubrey David, 5.Akeem Adams (15.Uriah Bentick 87th), 6.Leston Paul (4.Sherron Joseph ?), 8.Sean De Silva (7.Kevin Molino 75th), 10.Daniel Joseph (11.Trent Lougheed 63rd) 12.Jevon Morris (13.Marvin Manswell 54th) 14.Jean Luc Rochford (16.Marcus Joseph 62nd) 17.Mikeil Williams, 18.Daneil Cyrus, 19.Qian Grosvenor (9.Juma Clarence 79th).
Full Scheduled.
APRIL
28th - United Arab Emirates 1 (Zeyab Awana 67) v T&T 0
29th - United Arab Emirates v T&T
South Korea v T&T
South Korea v T&T
MAY
7th - Nigeria v T&T
9th - Nigeria v T&T
10th - Ghana v T&T
12th - Ghana v T&T