Beenhakker’s men lose to Alianza Lima

The national squad paid dearly for their lack of movement, especially in attack, in front of a reasonable turnout of approximately 3,000 supporters. In all fairness, the Lima outfit will hardly survive against top-class opponents, especially the major outfits in the South American Club Championships — the Copa Libertadores. But they walked away with a win against a side struggling to come to grips with the coaching and tactical methods of the recently-appointed Leo Beenhakker.

Too often, especially in the first half, the TT lads decided the best course of attack was ball-possession, which is good — except that the defenders kept passing the ball to each other while their team-mates showed little desire to create a play.

The first real goalscoring opportunity, for either team, came in the 34th minute when Lima striker Johan Fano intercepted a bad pass from stopper Dennis Lawrence and sent his 35-metre drive wide of the mark.

Eight minutes later, Fano atoned for his earlier mistake with a one-time right-footed effort past TT goalkeeper Clayton Ince. After a left-side corner by Rinaldo Cruzado was cleared by the defence, Carlos Fernandez and Cruzado engaged in a one-two before Fernandez’ cross found a lurking Fano who shot home, from inside the six-yard box.

The hosts had two chances to equalise in the second half — in the 56th minute, Carlos Edwards collected a left-side centre from fellow winger Derek Phillips and fed a goalbound Cornell Glen but his (Glen) effort was blocked by defender Ivan Furios. And in the 87th, a low freekick by Anton Pierre was held by Lima’s goalie Manuel Riofrio.

As is the case with Latin American teams, tempers flared with a confrontation between Edwards and Pedro Aparicio in the 75th minute, but referee Neal Brizan failed to produce a card following the melee. With the focus of the team intent on the June 4 CONCACAF World Cup qualifier against Panama, at the Mucurapo venue, the national squad will resume training for a friendly international against El Salvador next Wednesday.

Fresh from his debut appearance, midfielder Chris Birchall says he’s adjusting to the conditions in the Carribbean and after taking the field for 90 minutes in Wednesday’s game, said he’s getting closer to becoming a true ‘Trini.’

The 20-year-old player gave a creditable performance in his first game in TT colours and would have left a smile on the face of his mother Jennifer who flew down to see the game as guest of TTFF Special Advisor Jack Warner. The Port Vale player said he was anxious to get his debut game out of the way.

"I felt great being out there today. The lads have been good with me and it was just nice to get my first game out of the way," Birchall said after the match. "The result was disappointing but we played some good football in the first half which is encouraging. There are still a lot of things that we have to work on and we have the time together to sort it out. We know how important the game is on the 4th of June, we’ve got to win that."

Team skipper Yorke also shared his thoughts on the debutant by saying, "There were some new players in, if you look at Chris, he was phenomenal tonight and that is encouraging from our point-of-view and I’m sure from the management point-of-view as well."