No excuses from coach Maturana

But the 59-year-old Colombian-born tactician is eager for the squad to rebound from Wednesday’s defeat with a victory, away to Guatemala, on October 11.

“What is there to say except for we didn’t play well and we lost the game,” said Maturana. “I was not happy with our play. We have to go and try to win our next match now and take it from there.”

When asked about the urgency of next month’s game against Guatemala — both teams have four points from three games in Group “A”, Maturana replied, “before this round, we saw that Mexico, USA and maybe Costa Rica would always be among the top three and all the other teams would have to try and compete for fourth and even the third spot.

“The same goes for the second place in our group,” he continued. “I think there is a possibility that whichever team wins the (TT-Guatemala), they will advance to the next round. Concerning the composition of the squad, which raised a number of eyebrows, Maturana stated, “I don’t talk too much about players as whatever team you have you try to do the best possible.

“It did not work in our favour tonight,” he continued. “I do not make any excuses but we have to work at it again and pick ourselves up in order to dig deep for our results.”