T&T U-20s return home after narrow loss to Brazil
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF)
Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 footballers returned home on Monday morning a somewhat satisfied bunch after narrowly missing out on a result against Brazil’s National Under 20 team in Puerto La Cruz on Sunday evening.
The Zoran Vranes-coached outfit led the world giants 2-0 after 61 minutes before conceding heavily in a chaotic closing ten minutes.
After Leston Paul had put T&T ahead on 44 minutes and striker Juma Clarence doubled the advantage on 61, T&T crumbled against the South Americans. It all happened when Vranes was red carded for dissent by the referee with T&T leading 2-0 and defender Uriah Bentick was also given marching orders.
The Brazilians pulled a goal back from the penalty spot through Fluminense forward Alan and two goals followed in quick succession in the closing five minutes from forward Ciro and Paranaense midfielder Gabriel Pimba.
The Brazilian technical staff led by head coach Rogerio Lourenco afterwards congratulated the T&T contingent for their efforts, according to team manager Chris De Silva.
“It was a hard game because Brazil is Brazil no matter when or where you play them,” Vranes told TTFF Media.
The eleven Brazilians that T&T lined up against included only a couple changes to the Brazilian first team that had won all its previous matches in the Puerto Rico Hexagonal. Among their starters were Paranaense midfielder Raul, Gremio defender Saimon, Corinthians midfield duo Bruno Bertucci and Rafael Boquita, Botafogo midfielder Wellington Junior and midfielder Anselmo of Palmeiras.
“Tactically we played very well and I thought our guys came back very nicely after losing the early matches. We settled in well after two or three game but I think we still have to understand how to protect our goals a little bit smarter and better. If we could do that then maybe we would have won this game against Brazil,” Vranes said.
“I got red card because to me it was obvious that the referee tried to help Brazil in the second half and he was not happy when I protested. They got a very soft penalty. When I went out and then Bentick was sent off too, I think maybe our boys got a little bit scared after they scored the first goal and things fell apart for us near the end. It was a lack of experience as we probably used to thinking too that we cannot beat a team like Brazil.
“But my point is that we showed that we can play and compete well against tough opponents. Our game against Paraguay was poor because we were playing against their style of football which our players were not accustomed to and it threw us off a bit. We were not accustomed to their way of challenging and the referee allowed a lot of rough play to go on during the game.”
When asked whether he was worried about T&T’s tendency to settle in only in the latter stages of tournaments and tours, particularly with only three games scheduled for the Group stage at the FIFA World Championship in Egypt, Vranes pointed out that only a continuous program will solve that problem
“We will catch up and solve this problem. The problem we had is that when we came back from the last tour (far east), we did not play any games and our program fell back a little so then it took us a little time to get back accustomed to playing against higher quality opponents. But we went to Venezuela and after two or three games we were playing at a high intensity. I am confident though that this will continue because the Federation has set up some more games and tours for us and we should be ready to start well by the time the tournament in Egypt comes up,” Vranes concluded.(July 27,2009. Photo shows T&T Team in Puerto La Cruz)
T&T line up vs Brazil : 1Glenroy Samuel,19 Daneil Cyrus,15. Uriah Bentick,5.Akeem Adams (2.Aubrey David, 86th),12.Robert Primus (18. Mekeil Williams),4. Sheldon Bateau (Curtis Gonzales), 14. Jean Luc Rochford (16.Marcus Joseph, 46th),6. Leston Paul, 8 Sean de Silva (7.Chike Sullivan, 83rd), 10. Qian Grosvenor,11. Trent Lougheed.
