U-17s concede heavy in first warm up on Dutch turf.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).[/size]
Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 17 footballers got a sound wake up call in their first training match of the current camp in Holland as they suffered a 6-2 defeat to the Under 18 team of Dutch club De Graafschap at its training centre on Tuesday evening.
The T&T side didn’t start badly by any means but were punished for poor organization in defense and for failing to make better use of at least three good chances on goal before the break.
Playing under chilly conditions on a well grassed pitch, skipper Leston Paul and his teammates found themselves 3-0 behind after just 20 minutes to a team which included three Holland National Under 17 players including goalkeeper Jordy van de Kracht, Lion Kaak and Ties Evers.
The first goal for the hosts came when midfielder Kevin Molino, starting ahead of injured Chike Sullivan, gave up the ball near the half line and Graafschap broke goalwards with Luuk de Jong playing it in for Soufian El Hassnoui who hammered past goalkeeper Jesse Fullerton in the 5th minute.
A minute later T&T tried to hit back with a well played ball from the right from Micah Lewis being met by an unmarked Stephen Knox but his effort from just atop the six yard couldn’t beat them Dutch national under 17 ‘keeper.
T&T at that stage were measuring up well to the Dutch boys. On 10 minutes striker Daniel Joseph made an interception and sent Knox through but his grounder missed the far right post by inches.
Soon after Graafschap taught T&T a second lesson on finishing when Jochem Jansen headed home from a right side corner. Again the player went up unchallenged at the time.
Eight minutes elapsed before T&T conceded a third item. A poorly taken free kick on the right ended up with Graafschap breaking down the left through El Hassnoui who evaded Daniel Cyrus’ challenge and as Robert Primus committed, the player played into space for de Jong to convert his second of the match.
Five minutes from half time, Joseph squandered what was easily the best chance of the half. A long clearance from Fullerton hit the turf twice before dropping for Joseph who had only the goalie to beat but instead his effort lacked the sharpness to avoid a deflection out.
The onslaught continued in the second half as on 47 minutes Rob Aarntzen collected from Hassnoui and drew substitute goalie Glenroy Samuel to the right post before hitting clinically into the left corner.
T&T were more purposeful in the early part of the second half but overcoming a four-goal deficit was always going to be a tough ask.
Defender Akeem Adams brought some life back into T&T’s game when his blistering left footed strike from 25 yards out after a Leston Paul lay off left the goalie with no chance on 55 minutes.
Just as they seemed likely to make the scoreline tighter, T&T conceded yet again. Hassnoui lobbed Samuel from the left of the box.
Paul had a neat chip just go over bar and then Samuel pulled off the save of the game when he pushed Sven’s Spekking’s header from the six yard over bar.
Graafschap got its sixth goal in the 80th minute through Martijn Schutten beat an advancing Samuel.
T&T, which started the game without regular centre backs Robert Primus and Sheldon Bateau, got a second consolation item when substitute Stephan Campbell powered his past three challenges on the left flank before playing inside for fellow substitute Marcus Joseph to bury past the goalie. American-born Aaron Maund also made his first start with Joseph, Sean De Silva, Campbell and Ryan O’Neil getting second half appearances.
Corneal calls loss an eye opener.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).[/size]
National Under 17 head coach Anton Corneal described Tuesday’s 6-2 defeat to Dutch Premier Division club De Graafschap as an eye opener for his team as they go into the final days of the preparation camp at the Papendal training centre in Arnhem.
T&T were forced on the defensive from early on as they conceded much too easily and struggled to force themselves back into the game against the Under 18 team which included three Dutch National Under 17 players.
“I was very disappointed in their attitude towards the game,” Corneal told TTFF Media as he described the performance of his players.
“We don’t understand what it takes to play from the beginning… we have not come out of this since all of us needing to put out from the beginning. We still think we have to feel teams out and before anything happened for us we were down three goals and all three were blunders at the back. On the other hand you have to look at he chances we squandered. We should have come out at half time 3-3,” Corneal added.
“When you do finishing in the morning session and then come and get similar chances in the game it shows that we weren’t doing the extra that is required to get results. We had a little bit better second half but it was the only time we showed some effort and pride and we got chances where we scored two goals but it must not take a team to dominate us like that before we start to play. It’s better though that this happens now than at the World Cup and I hope we can learn from this.”
“We saw that when we decided to pressure we created chances but I hope this will be an eye opener because we have spoken about it many times. One team can take advantage of our faults and we need to prevent that. The team was well organized and played simple while we were the opposite for too much of the game,” Corneal ended as he refused to use the long travel and six-hour time difference as an excuse for the team’s lackluster showing under chilly conditions. Despite Akeem Adams blistering strike and Marcus Joseph’s goal off the bench after a good build up, only skipper Leston Paul managed a decent showing as his teammates were all guilty of unforced errors and lack of urgency in their play.
Senior Team head coach Wim Rijsbergen was also hopeful of the team stepping up its game as the build up continues to the August 20 opener against Ghana at the FIFA Under 17 World Championship.
The T&T U17 team will have a final training match on Saturday and will also attend a preseason encounter between La Liga club Athletico Bilbao and Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem. Corneal conducted a recovery session on Wednesday morning before meeting with the players for just over an hour prior to the evening session at Papendal.