Concacaf 2010 World Cup Qualifiers
Do or die for Soca Warriors
BY FRANCIS JOSEPH (Trinidad Guardian)
A dejected Francisco Maturana heads to the team bus after the Soca Warriors fell 0-3 to the US on Wednesday night in Chicago.
PHOTO: FRANCIS JOSEPH
From Chicago
If T&T is to qualify for next year’s final round for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, the Soca Warriors must defeat Guatemala next month.
It is Guatemala or T&T to go through to the next round, Colombian coach Francisco Maturana said after the Soca Warriors fell 0-3 to the US on Wednesday night at Toyota Park, Chicago, USA.
To make the defeat more hurtful, Guatemala defeated Cuba 4-1 at home on Wednesday night to level with T&T on four points after three matches.
Maturana is not giving up. He told T&T Guardian that he would have liked to beat the US on Wednesday night. “But they are a good team, they were better today, they were the stronger team.”
Asked about the poor performance of the Soca Warriors, in particular midfielder Keon Daniel, Maturana said: “He has scored three goals in that position. You just don’t make changes for changes sake. He played well in that position before.”
Asked if the absence of Dwight Yorke and Avery John contributed to the heavy defeat, the coach added, “I don’t like to talk about things that are not there.”
As far as Maturana is concerned, Mexico, Costa Rica and the US are three top teams in Concacaf at the moment. He believes T&T and Guatemala are level and which ever team wins the October clash will go through to the next round. (Guatemala and T&T battled to a 1-1 draw in Port-of-Spain last Saturday).
Maturana is not even thinking about the return clash with the US. After 11 meetings, the US has won nine with two drawn.
The Soca Warriors gave a very disappointing performance before a crowd of 11,452, which included a number of T&T nationals who travelled from various cities in the US.
The T&T team never settled. They started slowly and defensively and it came as no surprise in the ninth minute when Michael Bradley gave the US a 1-0 lead. The cheers of the Americans fans had not yet died down when the US went 2-0 in the 18th minute through Clint Dempsey.
Once again, it was poor defensive work which led to the two early goals.
The Americans missed out on a third goal in the 28th minute when Brian Ching’s shot went straight to local goalkeeper, Marvin Phillip. The US went to the half time break with a 2-0 lead.
Whatever Maturana told his players at half time brought some spark into their play. Anthony Wolfe replaced Densil Theobald at the break and the Warriors were quick on the ball and they looked like they meant business. Shots were taken on the US goal and in quick time, the Warriors won four corner kicks.
A dangerous tackle by Akile Edwards earned him a yellow card and the Americans a free kick. They wasted little time and Ching made it 3-0. That took the fight out of the Warriors and it was now a question of how many goals they would receive at the end of 90 minutes.
Wolfe got the ball in the back of the net in the 59th minute, but it was ruled offside. The painful and agonising end came with the final score being 3-0. The US has a maximum of nine points, having previously beaten Guatemala and Cuba by a 1-0 margin.
the teams
T&T: Marvin Phillip, Clyde Leon, Akile Edwards,Osei Telesford, Keyeno Thomas, Carlos Edwards, Cyd Gray (capt), Makan Hislop, Densil Theobald, (Anthony Wolfe 46th min) Cornell Glenn, Keon Daniel.
US: Tim Howard, Carlos Bocanegra (capt), Oguchi Onyewu, Steve Cherundolo, Heath Pearce, Sacha Kijestan, DaMarcus Beasley.Cherundolo, Clint Dempsey (Eddie Lewis 77th), Landon Donovan, Brian Ching (Eddie Johnson 67th), Michael Bradley(Ricardo Clark 67th)
OFFICIALS: Courtney Campbell (referee), Stephen Brown, Triston Tulloch (linesmen), Howard Stennet (fourth official) — all of Jamaica.
Glenn: T&T loss a good thing
Trinidad GuardianStriker Cornell Glenn said the Soca Warriors made three mistakes in the World Cup qualifier with the US on Wednesday night. “Three mistakes, three goals, it cost us.”
Glenn spoke with reporters after the match which was played at Toyota Park, Chicago.
He added, “The loss tonight is a good thing for us. We have to work a little harder now to get the points away to Guatemala. We have a job to do and to forget and put this game behind us.”
The Warriors striker said it was a slight distraction not having Dwight Yorke on the field, and Dennis Lawrence not playing the game. “The coach made a decision to put Osei (Telesford) and I think he did very well today. We made three mistakes and it cost us.
“We missed a couple of players well tonight, Avery John and Dennis Lawrence. Probably, if we started the first half how we started the second half, it may have been different. I know they would have come at us hard to get the three points and take us out of it. This is World Cup qualifiers, it will always be tough. We lost 3-0, but we have to work hard for the next game next month.
‘We gave them too much space in the first half, it was different in the second half, but three mistakes, three goals, it cost us.Some of the players were new and did not understand the system, that had part to do with our performance tonight,” Glenn added.
qualifying results
NEW YORK CITY – Results of Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (Concacaf) World Cup qualifying matches on Wednesday.
GROUP 1
USA beat Trinidad and Tobago 3-0
Guatemala beat Cuba 4-1
GROUP 2
Mexico beat Canada 2-1
Honduras beat Jamaica 2-0
GROUP 3
El Salvador beat Suriname 2-0
Costa Rica beat Haiti 3-1
CMC
