Trinidad and Tobago's World Cup squad scored a 3-2 win over Austria Vienna in a training match at the Thermen Arena on Tuesday before an appreciative crowd of 900 odd fans.
The "Soca Warriors" playing their first match of the European tour twice held two-goal advantages before Vienna came back to snatch two second half goals .
Coventry City striker Stern John, after going close a couple times earlier, broke the deadlock in the 25th minute with a left foot volley from inside the penalty box after Dennis Lawrence headed over from the right side.
Then two minutes later, the second goal came following a good build up which saw skipper Dwight Yorke threading wide to Carlos Edwards on the right who in turn switched the play over on the far side for Jason Scotland to hammer off the near post.
Vienna pulled a goal back in the 79 minutes after Leo Beenhakker made eight changes at half time, through Walzer Andreas. Substitute Kenwyne Jones regained T&T's two goal lead with a power header from Evans Wise' left side cross but there was still enough time for Parapatis Joachim to hit a penalty past Kelvin Jack in the final minute of added on time.
The game proved to provide just the kind of test Beenhakker and his men were hoping for at this time of the preparations as Vienna, though missing a few of their first team players, were not shy of having a go at T&T and even though goalie Shaka Hislop had little to do in the first half, Beenhakker would have been appreciative of the contest a few days before the biggest test from Wales at UPN Arena in Graz.
Actually, despite Hislop being mostly untroubled, it was Vienna who had the first couple looks at goal with Simkovic Tomas and Okotie Rubin causing Hislop to make stops inside the first ten minutes of the match.
Scotland, who started alongside John, then saw his low effort blocked by Saurer Christoph in the 13th minute.
T&T’s attack came to life when defender Dennis Lawrence made his way forward for a couple set pieces. First up in the 22nd minute Carlos Edwards’ right side cross found Lawrence’s head but the ball would only crash off the crossbar before Scotland’s follow up was saved by the ‘keeper.
A minute later Lawrence was again involved, this time seeing his lunging header graze the upright following Scotland’s left side delivery.
John then broke the deadlock with a clinical finish and Scotland followed up to leave the visitors going into the dressing room with a 2-0 lead.
Beenhakker had indicated that he would make the changes at the break with only Yorke, Densill Theobald and Chris Birchall remaining on the pitch for the 90 minutes. LA Galaxy forward Cornell Glen remained on the sidelines but will make his first appearance in actual training with the rest of the team on Wednesday. Aurtis Whitley and Silvio Spann were also rested to recover from niggling injuries while Anthony Wolfe and Clayton Ince were not used on Tuesday.
The Austrians came out eager to get on the scoresheet after the break but T&T maintained control with Russell Latapy in the middle of the park and Jones prosing a handful for the Vienna defense before he powered his header home after missing from close ranger a few minutes earlier.
Goalie Jack was however unhappy to let up the two goals,the first one coming off a slight mix up in possession following a throw in and then the second being a penalty. All in all though, Beenhakker and his staff appeared to have taken the win in stride and will resume preparations with a session on Wednesday morning before Saturday’s game against Wales which kicks off at 12:15pm (T&T time)
T&T line up : Shaka Hislop (Kelvin Jack 46th), Marvin Andrews (Brent Sancho 46th), Dennis Lawrence (Ian Cox 46th), Cyd Gray (Atiba Charles 46th), Chris Birchall, Dwight Yorke, Densill Theobald, Stern John (Collin Samuel 46th), Jason Scotland (Kenwyne Jones, 46th), Carlos Edwards (Russell Latapy 46th), Avery John (Evans Wise 46th) - Clayton Ince, Cornell Glen, Silvio Spann and Aurtis Whitley, Anthony Wolfe not used.
