The Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 men’s football team will be going hard for a win against their Canadian counterparts in their Group D qualifying series fixture, tonight, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, with a spot at the 2024 CONCACAF U-20 Championship at stake.
That tournament is scheduled to take place in Mexico in July. Tonight’s action gets under way from 7 p.m. Both T&T and Canada sit on six points but Canada possess a superior goal difference over T&T, meaning that with a draw they would qualify for the 12-team tourney later this summer.
For the hosts, nothing less than a win will do and T&T coach Brian Haynes has a plan. “We are going to outwork them… that is the first thing.
“Then we will try to outplay them and then last, and most important, try to outscore them because there is no other way to beat an opponent that’s as formidable as they are so that’s what we need to do and if we do those three things, I think we will come out ahead,” Haynes told the media following T&T’s 5-0 win over Dominica in Port of Spain on Sunday night.
T&T could and should have scored more than that, both Haynes and striker Larry Noel alluding to that view. But the focus now is on beating Canada and Haynes and Noel are confident the hosts can get the job done.
“I have to apologise to the fans because we weren’t trying to celebrate any goals tonight,” Haynes said on Sunday night. “We were trying to get as many as we could. The players did the most important thing in keeping a clean sheet. That was the important part of the exercise,” he noted.
“As a coach, I was very happy that they completed the task and two wins going into the last game against Canada, who also have two wins, there’s all to play for,” continued Haynes. “We’re at home so we intend to give it a good go and hopefully come out with a victory to move forward.”
Meanwhile, Noel, who scored two of T&T’s five goals on Sunday night, was also in an apologetic mood. He said he felt as though he let his teammates down but promised to make amends.
Noel scored in the 19th and 35th minutes but also missed a penalty when he failed to beat substitute goalkeeper Anton Wyke, who replaced Ronny Lockhart, who was red carded. T&T failed to capitalise, scoring just one goal in the second half.
“I feel great for the victory but I let my team down by losing the penalty and other chances but I’ll make up for that in the other game,” Noel said after the game. “I felt I could be better,” he added.
Asked about leading the T&T attack, Noel said, “the responsibility is pretty hard because you have to score your chances and carry the team and let players in the game, and allow them to make runs to score as well.”
Looking ahead to the Canada encounter, Noel said his teammates are up for it. “In the camp, everyone wants to come out the group stage, so I think everyone will come out hard on Tuesday to win against Canada.”
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