TT beat Costa Rica in U-17 Qualifier

Andre Fortune scored in the first half and Brent Sam added an insurance goal for the Soca Warriors in the second half at Estadio Agustin Muquita Sanchez, Panama City, Panama.

Goalkeeper Johan Welch, who plays for the Houston Dynamo Academy team, recorded the shut-out for the Caribbean side.

Trinidad and Tobago ended group play with three points (a win and a loss). The Costa Ricans will face Canada, 2-0 winners over Trinidad and Tobago in its opener, in the final group match tonight. The Ticos squandered a golden opportunity to take an early lead after Trinidad and Tobago’s captain Brendon Creed took down Arington Torres in the penalty area.

Referee Armando Castro of Honduras had no hesitation pointing to the penalty spot.

On the ensuing kick, however, Costa Rica’s Rory Rivera sent his attempt high over the net in the seventh minute. The Soca Warriors broke the ice in the 33rd minute with a goal from Fortune, who unleashed a low 28-yard shot, a left-footed effort that he tucked just inside the right post and goalkeeper Jorge Jara for a 1-0 lead.

After coming up empty in the opening 45 minutes, the Costa Ricans came out of the locker room with much more energy to start the second half. In search of the equaliser, Torres broke through the Trinidad backline and sent a shot that barely missed the right post in the 48th minute.

The Central Americans came close to knotting things up in the 65th minute when Torres headed a left-wing cross by Fernando Segura off the left post.

Trinidad and Tobago made most of one of its few scoring opportunities in the second half. Segura fouled Aikim Andrews at the edge of the penalty area. Sam launched an 18-yard free kick with his left foot that beat Jara to the near post and a two-goal advantage in the 79th minute.

“It’s a brilliant result for us and it shows that we can compete with these teams,” said coach Shawn Cooper.

“We worked our legs off coming into this tournament and I still felt we didn’t get the right kind of preparation because we got things going a bit late. But with the bit that we got in terms of match preparation added to the fight, belief and effort that we gave, brought us to this victory tonight.”

Creed pointed out, “this is what we worked hard for… to come here and show teams like CONCACAF that we too can win matches.

“We were disappointed with the loss to Canada but the boys knew that this could be our last game together in the competition if we didn’t pull it off and we came into the game knowing it was all or nothing. We still have one more game to win to make it to the World Cup and we will stay focussed and achieve what we set out to,” he added.