Under-23s look for Guyana revenge

Trinidad and Tobago’s Under-23 footballers will be aiming to redeem themselves in today’s second friendly against Guyana following Friday’s 2-1 loss to the hosts at the Georgetown Cricket Ground. Today’s match will kick off at 3 pm at the Blairmont Community Centre Ground   and national coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier is hoping that his outfit can come better than they did the first time around. The victory for the Guyanese was a welcomed one as their Brazilian-born technical director Neider Dos Santos said TT played a different game to the kind his players were accustomed to. “They sometimes used five midfields and the forwards were switching all the time. Our marking was not steady. But in the second half they improved a lot. Then we lost (Gregory) Richardson. It was hard to play that level of football with ten. However, with a little more patience, we could have scored more goals,” Dos Santos said. “It is the best performance by our team. Trinidad is by far the strongest opponent that we have faced but we still have a lot of improving to do,” Dos Santos said. “Of course it is the sweetest victory for us. Trinidad is a US $3M team. They are a powerhouse in the Caribbean. They went to Africa and played with Costa Rica. I think that it is a great achievement and I must say congratulations to the team. They have done a wonderful job,” added the Brazilian who has attended coaching workshops hosted by CONCACAF over the past year at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence, Macoya.

Charles-Fevrier said his players obviously played below par and appeared jaded during the affair. “We certainly will be aiming to come out with a better performance in this second match. This is part of our preparations for the more serious games in the qualifying tournament and we must be able to produce good football and results. We were not as sharp as I would have hoped for and our play was not consistent. These are areas we have worked and we must make improvement,” Fevrier said. Watched by a crowd that included  Guyana’s Minister of Home Affairs Ronald Gajraj and Director of Sport Neil Kumar, Guyana started cautiously but turned on the pressure in the second half of the see-sawing battle. TT reportedly controlled the opening half hour of the match and had some 18 attempts on goal during the encounter with eleven shots in the first half. Guyanese goalkeeper Fidel Smith had to well to stop efforts from striker Devon Mitchell and company. Devon Millington drilled a low shot past goalkeeper Jan Michael Williams in the 47th minute before Kerry Baptiste moved past Trevor Waterton and hit into the corner of the net for the equalizer in the 80th minute. Guyanese Gregory Richardson was ejected two minutes later for foul language but the homeside got the winner soon after through Sean Beveney. TT faces Grenada in St George’s in their next Olympic second round qualifier on November 15 and then at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on November 19 while Guyana takes on Costa Rica around the same date.

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"Under-23s look for Guyana revenge"

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