BEST FOR LAST: T&T take 3rd place, Mexicans new Youth Cup champs
By Kern De Freitas
Trinidad and Tobago's Under-16 footballers have been struggling for rhythm for most of the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Youth Cup tournament. But in yesterday's third place playoff against Jamaica, they found it.
The national youth team ended the tournament on a winning note against the Jamaicans, prevailing 2-0 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium yesterday to avenge a 3-0 loss to their Caribbean arch-rivals a year earlier.
Mexico were crowned CFU champs in the latter match of the doubleheader, as they finished the only unbeaten team in the tournament, defeating Haiti 3-0 in an ill-tempered affair that had promised for 70 minutes to be a classic final.
After a battling first half in which Haiti threatened to upset the CONCACAF giants, the match looked destined for extra time. Both goalkeepers were called on to make valiant saves that kept the score 0-0 at halftime. St Victor Ulterguens rocked the Mexico crossbar with a powerful shot in the 27th minute, while Edgar Pacheco had Haitian custodian Dorhans Shelson diving at full stretch to pluck the ball from danger 10 minutes later.
The steady Mexicans took the lead in the 71st minute against the run of play, when Carlos Pena knocked home from close range after a defensive mix-up in the 18-metre box.
Haiti would have felt themselves unfortunate to be behind, after Ulterguens' effort had cannoned off the crossbar, onto the goal-line, and back into the arms of Mexican 'keeper Alejandro Dautt five minutes before.
However, the match deteriorated in the 78th minute, when Haitian skipper Joseph Peterson, adjudged the tournament's best player and his teammate Saint Cyr Widner were sent off after they erupted in violent protest against local referee Richard Piper after he issued a booking and awarded a free-kick against them at the edge of the penalty area.
Saul Sandoval planted the resulting free-kick beneath Shelson's crossbar to put the match beyond Haiti, before late substitute Raul Nava added insult to injury with a 90th minute item. But the sending-off incident brought a sour end to an entertaining tournament.
In the first match, T&T's most prolific striker Stephen Knox, and defender, Man-of-the-Match Ryan O'Neil found the net in either half to give the home team a much needed boost after a heart-breaking 1-0 semi-final loss to the Haitians two days before.
The Jamaicans played second fiddle to the home team for most of the first half, and seemed to have been surviving up to halftime without conceding, when T&T were awarded a penalty in the 44th minute for handball. Knox stepped up and calmly slotted low to Jamaican goalie O'Neil Wilson's left to give T&T a 1-0 advantage.
The play of the "Young Soca Warriors" was of the same calibre in the second period. The midfield was more dominant than in their earlier encounters, and the defence had a strong presence and shut down the Jamaican attack.
O'Neil doubled T&T's advantage in the 53rd, as Sheldon Bateau supplied a pinpoint cross, which his fellow defender leapt to meet, placing from distance over Wilson, who was off his line, and into the goal.
Striker Daniel Joseph was one of the main thorns in Jamaica's side, with some deft footwork, and and quick movements. But his finishing touch once again let him down.
In the end, it hardly mattered as T&T completed a satisfactory win to the delight of a small crowd at the Stadium, a small consolation for missing out on the final the second year running.
T&T and Haiti also featured at the awards ceremony that followed yesterday's final.
T&T were awarded the fairplay accolade, while Knox was the top striker of the tournament. Haiti's Dorhans Shelson was voted best goalkeeper, while influential midfielder Joseph Peterson was the Most Valuable Player.
