T&T Football Federation’s Technical Director Lincoln Phillips said the Soca Warriors looked far from promising in their 1–0 win over El Salvador, in their Concacaf World Cup Qualifier final round match at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Wednesday evening.
He said coach Russell Latapy should now try to improve on what the players did right and not focus too much on what they did wrong. Phillips said the team played some good football, but in spurts, which is definitely not good enough, especially when they are at the bottom of the six team table and are trying to qualify. He felt that although team T&T had a couple of good scoring opportunities in the second half, which they blew, El Salvador had more control. “The team continues to show that it cannot play two full halves, and it was only the heroics of goalkeeper Clayton Ince and some good defending, that kept El Salvador out and resulted in a clean slate”, said Phillips.
He also feels that the team has a tendency to relax after scoring, and lacks the killer instinct to finish off teams. “Our forwards have to put away their chances, even if it’s half of a chance, and they have to also make something out of nothing. If we can’t make use of our opportunities now, when we reach the harder teams and we get less chances, we will be in trouble since we are not accustomed to finding the net regularly”, said the technical director. He added that more work needs to be done with the forwards, defence and the wingers, whom he feels, are costing the team in defence and in attack. T&T will visit Honduras for its next match on September 5.
Phillips feels that it will be a tall order if the Warriors are to pull off a win against the Central American team, which is now second in the standings, behind three wins, two defeats and a draw. Honduras, fresh from their 4–0 hammering of group leaders Costa Rica in their last qualifier also on Wednesday, will no doubt be going for full points when they meet T&T. In their first meeting of this round, T&T claimed a 1–1 draw as home with a last minute equaliser from a Khaleem Hyland strike.