U-20 Soca Warriors edge Alpha United
By Franklin Wilson (Kaieteur News)
Competing in their first practice match of their 10-day Training Camp in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-20 Soca Warriors edged Guyana’s #2 Club side Alpha United 2-1 at the Leonora Track and Field Football Field, yesterday afternoon.
The well manicured and lush green field which is expected to be used for Guyana’s Scotiabank CFU Men’s Caribbean Cup 2016 clash against Jamaica’s Reggae Boyz on October 11 next, once the CFU inspection team gives the thumps up, saw the young Soca side displaying a solid game from start to finish, to notch up the win.
The Trinis took the lead from a well placed shot in the 8th minute off the boot of their Captain, Jabari Mitchell. Alpha United, playing in their second pre-season warm up match following a 4-4 draw with the Guyana Defence Force still displayed signs of ring rust as the visitors moved the ball around well in keeping possession.
As the match progressed and subs were made Alpha United enjoyed a few good moments with the likes of Pernell Schultz and veteran Anthony Abrams on the pitch. The local side was able to, on the end of a good run of play, notch in the equalizer in the 77th minute when Daniel Wilson’s shot to goal eased into the back of the nets off the inner side of the left upright.
The young Trinidadians never let up and kept taking the fight to Alpha which brought the go ahead goal once again with two minutes to full time. Doing the honours of netting the winner was Moses Jaikeran in the 88th minute.
T&T Head Coach Brian Williams speaking with Kaieteur Sport after the match said that it was a decent game for his charges, while noting that they have been struggling to get decent warm up matches back in the Twin Island Republic which prompted the 10-camp in Guyana.
”What I saw in the game was the enthusiasm of all the players; they continue to fight through the entire 90 minutes. We are looking forward to continue a successful training camp here in Guyana, Sunday we play another game, tomorrow (today) we are back out to training but again I must say I was pleased with the performance of the team this afternoon.”
Alpha United’s Head Coach Wayne ‘Wiggy’ Dover in summing up his side’s performance stated that they have improved since the 4-4 draw with the Army as they have been working on extensively on defensive organization.
”I think we were very horrible against the Army, we conceded four goals but today (yesterday) despite not playing 100% to what we would expect we still saw some improvements defensively on a collective scale.”
Dover noted that the young T&T side is a fit unit that moved the ball well and have a good system of play where the forward line players were coming into the pocket and looking for the ball while making some good plays and shooting to target.
”We saw an intention to score goals and dominate us but we stood a bit resolute. We were not that focused on the scoreline but much more on how we played collectively.”
The young Warriors are preparing for the Caribbean Football Union Under-20 Finals to be hosted in Curacao from October 21 – 30, next. Coach Williams informed that he would be announcing his final 23-man team at the end of this training camp and on their return home some overseas based players will be joining them.
They will leave in early October for two more warm-up matches in Panama before making their way to Curacao.
Their final match is set for tomorrow at the same venue from 19:00hrs when they will face an Elite-All-Star side.
