T & T 1 - JA 1
We lined up like this
Ince
Smith Hislop Lawrence A. Edwards
Telesford
Otis Hyland
C. Edwards Daniel
Scotland
I left home about 4:20 and was in a seat in the bleacher section behind the goal to the north at 4:45. It was me, Laventille riddim section and about 8 other supporters in that section at the time. Whoever thought there would be trouble for seats was dead wrong.
Anyway game start. And the usual pattern emerged. Slow easy passes in the defense, give Otis d ball let him change the side to advance up the wing and mostly on the left. The more experienced Jamaican side looked more confident in possession of the ball and sprung several through passes on the right side especially. Kareem Smith did alright with them but he his want to hold the ball was detrimental at times. Captain Whitley and lieutenant Lawrence scolded him for this.
Jamaican striker # 10 was rendered ineffective for most of the half due to combination of good organisation and relatively good offside trap the T&T defense employed throughout the game.
The comment about T&T being pressured more by Jamaica than England is absolutely true. There was definitely less time and space to operate in and the usual elbows and pushed occurred. Jamaica earned quite a corners and brought Ince into serious action twice in the first half. He parried both shots over the bar. He commanded his area well throughout the game and dealt with Jamaican crosses which to be fair, were not that impressive.
After the brief rain shower in the first half the riddim section emerged and so did T&T. Akile Edwards picked a loose Jamaican pass from a restart and had a nice interplay with Daniel who found Hyland in space who wasted no time with and dispatched it low to the Keeper's right. I think his(the keeper) view was impeded by his own scrabbling defense. I estimate it to be around 30 mins, I have to estimate because they forget to start the clock in the first half.
Jamaica began to take the fight to T&T more and Telesford went into the referee's book for showing dissent after he fowled a player 30 yards from goal.It was foolish and unnecessary. I did appreciate his fight throughout the game though.
To my left was a group of drunken rastas who was buildin a weed in the open for everybody to see. It was a cool scene, nobody ent do them nothing and police was still by the gate anyway. By this time they joined in a chorus of "Allyuh by nuts from meh nah" It was a jovial atmosphere up there behind the goal and first half ended 1-0 to the Soca Warriors.
The second half started and it was all Jamaica for the first 10 mins. They created several opportunities capitalizing on their speed advantage on the wings. Ince dealt with all their submissions with ease.
If allyuh find I ent talk bout Scottie is not because he play shit is just that he was the lone striker and it was difficult for him to do any thing with 2 hard back Jamaicans on him all the time. Mid way through the second half the service especially from long pass from inside the T&T half improved. Scottie as we know is not speedy but will hold his own, and so he did. He and Carlos had some nice interplay but It was quite isolated in my opinion. The progress always resulted in a pass backward to Otis or Hyland who had a quiet game.
Carlos was subbed for Carter, and Daniel for Connel and Edwards for Farrier I suppose the tactic was to bolster the defense by adding pace on the flank and be able to spring a counter when available. It worked once with Carter but the move was nullified by a wrong offside call. The Jamaicans had the ball for longer periods and pressed hard. T&T did not deal well with their pace and resorted to time wasting tactics. with more than 15 mins to spare. I was disappointed to see that we were unable to keep the ball away from Jamaicans after taking the lead. It was and open game throughout.
The Riddim section changed the beat to reggae and we started to chant "Beat Jamaica , Beat Jamaica now" with 5 minutes to go. The taunt was entertaining for the moment but did not deter the Jamaicans. They sprang another through pass where Ince was deemed to have impeded the attacker. PENALTY was the call from the bajan official. I can't say if it was or not from my angle. But Shelton I believe it was shot to Ince's right and beat him. Understandably the ref was very unpopular at this time and we began to chant that grand ole hymn "The referee is a Bullaman" He even blow the game off on a T&T attack. 1-1 it ended and fair result I think.
There is a great deal of work to be done. The defense does not deal well with pace at all. I am happy with Otis' performance but I still think there is room for improvement. It is good that he is coping with his leadership role and was our best player. Highland was not faded in and out of the game too often. I think Carlos had an average game. Ince recovered well from the England performance. If he did foul the player it was the single stain on good performance.
One Addition. The Jamaican subs where more effective than ours. I know we have a lil injury situation but that speaks to the issue of depth in the squad.