TTFF News - Good result away from home

Good Result away from Home…. T&T draw with El Salvador

 

Issued by Shaun Fuentes, TTFF Media Officer, October 18, 2007

 

Trinidad and Tobago’s Senior Team, with four players making their debut at the international level, battled to a 0-0 draw with El Salvador in Wednesday’s friendly international at the Estadio Cuscatlan in San Salvador.

 

The team, with CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh midfielder Trent Noel wearing the captain’s armband, gave a gutsy showing before some 13,000 odd fans on a heavy field against a host team that was coming off a 2-2 draw with Costa Rica at the same venue on Saturday.

 

Captained by Ronald Cerritos, El Salvador head coach Carlos Los Cobos used a team comprising of some of his regular first team players as well as some Olympic team members as he as well looked ahead to 2010 World Cup qualification and the team’s Olympic campaign. And though they pressed in an attempt to break the deadlock and hit the crossbar midway through the second half. Cerritos’ men ran into a T&T outfit that was determined not to go down on the evening.

 

Jabloteh winger Jason Marcano was one of the debutants as Charleston Battery’s Andre Toussaint and Caledonia AIA’s Conrad Smith started up front and the defense was held firm by Keyeno Thomas with Kern Cupid also making his debut in defense along with Defence Force’s Keston Williams. They all deserved a clap for a hearty showing particularly in the second half when the game opened up allowing both teams to see more goalmouth action. But Eliseo Quintanilla, who netted in the previous 2-2 draw with Costa Rica, was not as fortunate this time around for the Central Americans.

 

El Salvador got two early free kicks around the T&T box but the visitors were the first ones to get something on goal. A neat combination between Smith and Toussaint allowed Stefan David to shoot over bar on eight minutes.

 

Neither team managed much towards goal with T&T custodian Marvin Phillip being untested until the second half. On 35 minutes, Andrei Pacheco had a crack at goal with a free kick atop the box which forced goalie Henry Hernandez to block low before scrambling to safety as Toussaint rushed in.

 

Ten minutes into the second half, Marcano played one inside to Toussaint with the hosts trying to get organized at the back and the little striker took his chance early but managed hitting over bar from the edge of the box. El Salvador broke soon after but their fans were left in dismay as the attack led to an attempt coming off the crossbar.

 

Then a minute later, Smith collected and pushed forward before dragging a shot low and straight to the advancing Hernandez from just outside the six yard.

 

On 57 minutes the attacks on goal within a six minute period continued. This time T&T were lucky that Cerritos couldn’t get over the ball, blasting over bar when unmarked on the far left of the goal. Three minutes later the veteran captain brought the best out of Phillip who had to pull out all his reflexes to push over a one time volley over from just outside the six yard. Toussaint also had a couple tries later on, both of them going wide from well positioned efforts. Another debutant Devon Jorsling came on to partner Toussaint late in the second half

 

Both teams battled it out in the remaining minutes and though fatigue stepped in late, the T&T “Warriors” were able to erase the 2-1 loss of June to give Rijsbergen a second consecutive draw following the 1-1 result with Guatemala at the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup fixture in Boston. In a previous encounter between the two teams in El Salvador, both teams drew 0-0 with T&T winning the home game 2-0 in a 1990 World Cup qualifier with Leonson Lewis netting a double and current goalkeeper coach Michael Maurice being in goal. In the three previous outings before Thursday’s draw, El Salvador won all three games, 3-2 (1996 CONCACAF Gold Cup), 2-0 (friendly in San Salvador) and 2-1 (2007 Gold Cup.

 

Rijsbergen pleased with result

 

T&T head coach Rijsbergen expressed some amount of satisfaction with the showing on the evening.

 

“I think I was satisfied with the performance from the boys. They played with their hearts. There is always room for improvement but we had some new guys in the team but what we saw was a lot of dedication on a very tough field. The grass was very long as well. Under the circumstances it was a very good result. We tried some new players again and some were struggling in the end in the physical part but in general I think it was a pretty decent performance.

 

“These guys got some time in training with another group of players and got use to a little bit higher intensity in training. Marcano did pretty good. At least he is a guy who is willing to work. I kept telling him last couple of days that he has to train a little harder because physically they can improve a lot. We saw Conrad Smith with Toussaint together.

 

“We had some chances but of course finishing of course is the most difficult part. They worked harder than before and this is a plus and a signal for the other players. That’s the only way to improve the game.. in international level they ask more than just playing  a game. They ask for a 100 hundred percent physically fit guy to start a game and that’s the message I gave in the last couple of days. We will use some of these guys again for the future,” Rijsbergen added.  The T&T contingent returns home on Thursday night.

 

T&T team: Marvin Phillip, Keston Williams, Seon Power,Andrei Pacheco (Glenton Wolffe, 73^rd), Kern Cupid, Keyeno Thomas, Stefan David, Trent Noel (Clyde Leon, 77th), Conrad Smith (Devon Jorsling 70^th), Jason Marcano (Kerry Baptiste (65^th), Andre Toussaint