Warriors finally off the mark.
By: Inshan "Flex" Mohammed.
San Jose Earthquakes striker Cornell Glen scored a sixth minute winner for Trinidad & Tobago as the Soca Warriors prevailed 1-0 winners over El Salvador Wednesday night at the Hasley Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain.
The game marked the first win for the Soca Warriors in final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying. The result left both teams with five points, at the bottom of the “hexagonal” standings with four games remaining.
Trinidad must next travel to Honduras on September 5 and then host the United States four days later. El Salvador will next face the United States near Salt Lake City and return home to play Costa Rica.
FINAL
T&T 1 (Cornell Glen 6th) vs El Salvador 0.
Line-Ups
T&T: - 1.Clayton Ince, 6.Dennis Lawrence (capt), 5.Keston Williams, 3.Radanfah Abu Bakr, 16.Silvo Spann, 2.Clyde Leon (7.Christopher Birchall 63rd), 8.Trent Noel, 12.Keon Daniel (17.Dwight Yorke 72nd), 11.Carlos Edwards, 13.Cornell Glen (9.Jason Scotland 83rd), 15.Kenwyne Jones.
Subs: - 14.Kerry Baptiste, 4.Marvin Andrews, 10.Hayden Tinto, 21.Marvin Phillip.
Coach: - Russell Latapy.
SLV: - 1.Miguel Montes, 13.Deris Ariel Umanzor, 4.Ramon Flores (14.Enrique Reyes 66th), 3.Marvin Gonzalez, 5.Luis Hernandez, 12.Manuel Salazar (9.Rudy Corrales 83rd), 8.Osael Romero (6.Arturo Alvarez 46th), 17.Cristian Castillo, 7.Ramon Sanchez (capt), 10.Eliseo Quintanilla, 11.Rodolfo Zelaya.
Subs: - 18.Benji Villalobos, 2.Alexander Rosales Escobar, 15.Alfredo Pacheco, 16.Denis Alas.
Coach: - Carlos De Los Cobos.
Attendance: - 20,000.
Yellow Cards:
Clyde Leon 5th (T&T), Kenwyne Jones 57th (T&T), Dennis Lawrence 62nd (T&T), Christopher Birchall 73rd (T&T).
Cristian Castillo 11th (SLV).
Standings
P W D L F A Pts
Costa Rica 6 4 0 2 9 9 12
Honduras 6 3 1 2 10 6 10
USA 6 3 1 2 11 8 10
Mexico 6 3 0 3 8 9 9
El Salvador 6 1 2 3 6 8 5
Trinidad & Tobago 6 1 2 3 7 11 5
Referee: Terry VAUGHN (USA)
Assistant Referee 1: Thomas SUPPLE (USA)
Assistant Referee 2: Corey E. ROCKWELL (USA)
Fourth official: Mark GEIGER (USA)
Glen's goal gives Warriors crucial win.
By: Ian Prescott (T&T Express).
Almost always when teetering on the edge, Trinidad and Tobago's Soca Warriors produce a saving performance. Remember them beating Mexico to stay alive, and then Bahrain in the Middle East to qualify for the 2006 World Cup?
Well, yesterday was no different at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
T&T's quest to qualify for a second successive World Cup received a much-needed shot in the arm when the Warriors grabbed their first victory of the final round of CONCACAF qualifying by beating El Salvador 1-0 via a Cornell Glen goal.
Russell Latapy's team still occupy the cellar position. But with five points now in hand, the South Africa 2010 dream still lives on, providing T&T can get a positive result from a pivotal match in Honduras on September 5.
Last night, the national side got a perfect start and managed to hold the advantage this time, which was not the case when the teams met in El Salvador at the start of this campaign.
Latapy must have been smiling at the early effort from his footballers, who put plenty pressure on the visitors in the first half. And the good early work bore fruit when in just the eighth minute, striker Glen produced a clinical low finish to give the Warriors a 1-0 advantage.
Carlos Edwards won the ball on the left, and after a few combinations, headed it in to Glen, who shrugged off his marker and finished expertly.
There were many other happy first half moments for the Soca Warriors, but no further goals.
Edwards had his way with El Salvador up the right flank, and had them panicked and scrambling with a swung-in cross to Glen, who stumbled and fell in his haste to get the ball midway through the half.
Edwards also hit the crossbar with a free-kick in the 40th. And later, goalkeeper Miguel Montes was at his best to keep El Salvador in the game, as the Warriors piled on pressure late in the half.
But as in the Costa Rica match which T&T lost 3-2 in Tobago, the game was far too open and there were moments when the home fans were on the edges of their seats.
Striker William Romero was given too much space in 18-metre box and allowed to shoot across goal in the 17th minute, and soon after, Rodolpho Garcia tried a long-range volley and just cleared the T&T crossbar.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, though, as Montes was again at his best in the 55th when saving a long-range Kenwyne Jones shot with his legs. Glen also hit across the face of the goal and just missed picking out Jones at the back post.
T&T goalie Clayton Ince also brought off two match-saving stops, first in the 69th when the new man William Reyes drilled a low shot to goal, and then in the 81st when Castillo hit one from close-up, Ince miraculously managed to stop the ball squeezing through his legs.
Dwight Yorke eventually came on in the 71st to steady the ship at a point when El Salvador appeared to be taking control. It was never comfortable for T&T, but in the end, getting three points was all that mattered.
Cornell Glen goal saves T&T.
By: Joel Bailey (T&T Newsday).
Striker Cornell Glen netted a seventh minute goal to give Trinidad and Tobago a 1-0 win over El Salvador in their 2010 FIFA World Cup CONCACAF Zone Final Round qualifier at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo last night.
Glen, on the left, received a diagonal pass from Carlos Edwards and, with the visitors appealing in vain for an off-side, the 27-year-old attacker took on the challenges of Ramon Flores and Manuel Salazar before placing his low left-footer to the left of the flat-footed goalkeeper Miguel Montes.
The result was Trinidad and Tobago’s first victory in the final round qualifiers, but they remained in cellar spot, with an inferior goal difference to El Salvador – both teams have five points from six matches.
Trinidad and Tobago coach Russell Latapy made five changes from the squad which was beaten 2-1 in their last qualifier on June 10 in Mexico, with Keston Williams, Silvio Spann, Clyde Leon and Glen replacing Makan Hislop, Marvin Andrews, Chris Birchall and Hayden Tinto, while Dennis Lawrence returned as captain in place of Dwight Yorke.
Williams, a centre-back by trade, was used as a left-back and Spann, on the right, were kept busy by the nifty El Salvadorans, who relied almost exclusively on build-ups on the flanks, contrasting to the long-ball style of the hosts.
El Salvador midfielder William Romero spooned a left-footed effort, with only goalkeeper Clayton Ince to beat, in the third minute, and Trinidad and Tobago made the visitors pay four minutes later, with a clinical finish from Glen.
El Salvador tried their best to even up the scores, as Romero, on the left, sent a wayward right- footer across the face of goal, while a long punt fell to striker Rodolfo Zelaya but his 25-metre blast went sky-high.
Zelaya tried an audacious bicycle kick, after Miguel Hernandez Campos headed an outswinging corner, from the left, by Eliseo Quintanilla, in the 35th minute.
Edwards, restored to his favoured right-winger role, found space behind the opposition’s defence on the left and won a free kick, after he was brought down by Romero. The resultant spot-kick, in the 40th, from the edge of the penalty area by Edwards, saw Montes frozen as the ball struck the upright.
A minute later, Edwards fed Glen in the centre field and the striker, in turn, spotted an unmarked Keon Daniel who, in his typical languid way, took time to shoot and his left-footer was blocked by a retreating Marvin Gonzalez.
Montes did well to hold central defender Radanfah Abu Bakr’s header, from a 44th minute in- swinging Daniel corner, while 11 minutes into the second half, Daniel’s ball to Glen was chested and relayed to Kenwyne Jones whose 25-metre drive was parried by Montes’ legs. Jones failed to connect on a square pass, from the left, by Glen but El Salvador, who, by then, focused their attention on arguing everything to American referee Terry Vaughn, turned on the heat.
Zelaya, on the right, faked substitute Chris Birchall and sent a ball into the box but Ince was alert to prevent a volley from another sub Williams Reyes while, on the opposite end, Birchall intercepted a ball from El Salvador captain Ramon Sanchez, fed Edwards whose deep ball found Glen. With only the keeper to beat, Glen narrowly missed his shot, from the edge of the area. There were lots of nervous moments in the Trinidad and Tobago defence, with Yorke inserted as a defensive midfielder in the 71st.
Sanchez got a loose ball, after the defence failed to clear Zelaya’s right-sided cross, and drilled a shot straight at Ince and, four minutes later (82nd), Reyes relayed Quintanilla’s outswinging right-sided corner to Zelaya.
Zelaya’s right-footer, from eight metres out, seemed destined for goal but Ince miraculously stopped the ball from crossing the line, grabbing it from a spread-eagled position.
On September 5, in their next qualifiers, Trinidad and Tobago will travel to Honduras while El Salvador will host the United States.
