PERU PRESS KNOCKS WARRIORS

The Peruvian press was yesterday less than complimentary in their description of team Trinidad and Tobago’s performance Wednesday evening during this country’s last football friendly on TT soil against the “Incas.” The 2006 World Cup warm up match ended in a 1-1 draw.

La Republica, a Peruvian daily had this to say: “The local team, much to everyone’s surprise, had a lot of problems getting control of the ball. It appeared to lack clarity and was also lacking the speed it had demonstrated in the Concacaf round of the World Cup tournament.” It continued: “In the 29th minute, Trinidad and Tobago eqaulised by the only means possible: a free kick.”

Another daily, El Peruano, stated that the TT side, pitted against Peru’s new coach Franco Navarro were not dangerous rivals, while Peru 21 observed that the TT, Peru game took an unexpected turn as the Warriors, “supposedly ready for Germany, didn’t manage to beat a Peruvian squad that was lacking its principal international players.”

The daily further noted that despite TT’s poor performance, local fans celebrated in the Hasley Crawford Stadium, caught up in the national fever of first time World Cup appearence. La Republica, and El Peruano agreed that Navarro had had a decent start as coach.

Meanwhile, however the daily El Ojo criticised the Pervuian side for not taking advantage of its opportunities to score and said that though coach Navarro didn’t lose his debut game, he needed to teach his players how to win.

All four dailies agreed that the first half of the match belonged to Peru while in the second half, TT had more control of the ball, but that their control and play were not impressive enough to win the match.

They also noted that Peru should have scored more, but didn’t make enough of their opportunities.

TT’s Soca Warriors yesterday participated in a Road Show in Tobago and are in south Trinidad tomorrow before they leave in two batches over the weekend for Manchester, England, where they will be engaged in a camp before heading out to mainland Europe for another camp in Austria and several warm-up matches before the World Cup Finals.

Trinidad and Tobago are in Group “B” in the preliminary stages of the World Cup with England, Sweden and Paraguay. They play Sweden on June 10; England on June 15 and Paraguay on June 20.