By LASANA LIBURD
AFTER 270 minutes of football, the Trinidad and Tobago national football team got their first point of the 2002 Concacaf World Cup qualifying final round yesterday with a 1-1 draw against Mexico at the Queen’s Park Oval.
In a game where either team seized momentum only to concede it through petulant
use of the arm, the Soca Warriors would rue three lost points but could hardly
feel aggrieved by the result.
Nor should the visiting El Tricolor outfit for that matter.
The pre-game cross talk between the Trinidad and Tobago and Mexican Football
Federations suggested 90 minutes of open warfare but, in the end, yesterday’s
qualifier could be described as football’s answer to chess.
The play was gripping and thoughtful but was much too tight to please the crowd
of roughly 10,000 persons grown accustomed to the swashbuckling football of the
semi-final rounds.
Trinidad and Tobago and Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke was the
afternoon’s main casualty.
There were two neat spin moves by Yorke and one shot that just missed the far
post but, those rare moments apart, the Tobagonian was as restricted as the two
Lincoln Navigators held, at present, by the local Port Authority.
To the relief of the local crowd though—and no doubt embattled coach Ian
Porterfield as well—the T&T defence was almost as economical and generally
offered protection to goalkeeper Clayton Ince.
It was a far cry from the team that were gunned down 3-0 away to Costa Rica a
month ago if only in terms of their patience and discipline while defending.
And, after 194 barren minutes, T&T finally opened their “goals for”
account.
Fourteen months ago, it was Scottish-based defender Marvin “Dog” Andrews who
gave Porterfield his first goal in the opening 2002 World Cup qualifier against
Netherland Antilles.
Yesterday afternoon, with the Soca Warrior’s World Cup ambitions in the
balance, he provided an encore.
From a left side corner kick, Andrews rose to meet an inswinging Angus Eve cross
with a firm downward header that bumped off the ground and into the roof of
Mexican goalkeeper Oswaldo Sanchez’s net.
There was a brief rise in aggression soon after but three quick yellow cards by
Kuwaiti referee Kameel Saad Mane—one for T&T’s Anthony Rougier and two
for Mexico’s German Villa and Rafael Marquez—kept the game well under
control.
Then came Eve’s error of judgement.
Mane was talking to lanky stopper T&T Dennis Lawrence when Mexican left wing
back Marco Antonio Ruiz went down clutching his face.
A check by Mane with his assistant revealed the home fans’ worst fears and Eve
was sent to the showers for improper use of his forearm.
If the visitors felt that three points were now there for the taking, though,
they had another thing coming.
By the interval, the Mexicans were in control stroking the ball from side to
side but unable to get to the flanks—their favoured mode of attack—thanks to
the patient and disciplined work of their opponents.
Yugoslav coach and new T&TFF “defensive co-ordinator” Zoran Vranes may
have been forgiven a curt smile in the dressing room.
There would be a more in-depth test of the Joe Public coach’s credentials
after the break, though.
On went livewire midfielder Jesus Arellano and Jared Borgetti, the T&T’s
tormentor in chief last October with a hattrick in their 7-0 win at the Azteca
Stadium, and something always looked likely to give.
It would be on the end of the red, white and blacks.
The Warriors dug in creditably but could only preserve their clean sheet for
another 15 minutes before Mexican midfielder Pavel Pardo brought the guests on
level terms with a right footer which surprised custodian Clayton Ince.
In his defence, Ince could hardly have gotten a good look at the ball with the
majority of his teammates, at the time, defending at the edge of his box.
The game had finally swung the way of the green, red and whites.
Fourteen minutes later, it swished the other way as Marquez was given marching
orders for handling the ball from a Mexican corner kick.
It was a shocking piece of amateurism for a defender who is rumoured to be just
months away from a US$20 million move from French team Monaco to European giants
Real Madrid.
Still Mexico had the best chance to take all three points.
With just ten minutes remaining, the skilful Arellano turned inside Elcock and
feinted past Rougier before his left footed attempt deflected obligingly for
Borgetti.
The small group of Mexican travellers rose to their feet in expectation but,
Borgetti got his co-ordinations embarrassingly wrong and sidefooted the ball
harmlessly wide at Ince’s far post.
It was the luck of the green that Porterfield had pleaded for in a pre-game
match conference on Monday.
More than Andrews’ header, though, it was Borgetti’s blunder that handed the
Warriors a World Cup lifeline although they remain at the foot of the six team
table.
They would hope to make good use of it, in three weeks time, when Honduras come
visiting.
By Irving Ward
TRINIDAD and Tobago skipper Russell Latapy and his teammates remained at the bottom of the CONCACAF Zone 2002 World Cup mountain yesterday, after Mexico snatched a 1-1 draw in their crucial third-round encounter at the Queen's Park Oval.
The result, although giving the home side its first point of the
campaign, left T&T rooted to the bottom of the six-team table.
And, pending the results of last night's other two group games between
leaders United States and Costa Rica and Jamaica/Honduras, yesterday's
result may yet come back to haunt T&T down the road.
However, Latapy's side, and midfielder Angus Eve in particular, have
only themselves to blame for the loss of two vital home points.
Eve left his teammates out in the cold after he foolishly played into
Mexico's hands in the 34th minute when he was sent off for retaliating
against Antonio Ruiz.
The ejection, which came in the 34th minute, turned the game on its
head, neutralising what had been a brilliant start and leaving T&T
fighting desperately to preserve its slim lead.
Putting on a game face, Latapy's men - ironically urged on by a
surprisingly small crowd estimated at 9,000 - fought hard, but finally
yielded just after the hour mark when Mexican midfielder Pavel Pardo got
the equaliser for the visitors.
World Cup history will show, though, that it is still possible to come
back from such a slow start. And with another home stand against
Honduras on June 16, Latapy's side will have to keep the faith and dig
even deeper in its quest to take T&T to its first-ever World Cup
finals. Yesterday's game started well enough for coach Ian Porterfield
and his new technical staff, though.
After weathering an early storm from the Mexicans, T&T - with five
changes to the team which lost 3-0 to Costa Rica - took a 15th-minute
lead through Scotland-based Marvin Andrews. The Livingston defender
arrived unmarked inside the six-metre box to head a left-side Eve cross
past the desperate lunge of Mexican goalie Oscar Sanchez.
Thriving on the energy of the opening goal, the T&T midfield - led
by Latapy, Ronnie Mauge, Brent Rahim, given his first chance to start,
and Eve, pressed for another goal.
But Eve would then throw away everything T&T had worked for by
giving the Mexicans, known for their unsportsmanlike tactics, the
opening they were hoping for just after the half-hour mark. The play
which sparked the nonsensical sending off, did not even involve Eve.
Anthony Rougier was fouled by Mexican striker Antonio de Negris and
referee Kameel Saad Mane, having awarded T&T a free kick, had
actually been talking to Lawrence some distance away after he stepped in
to push the player from his T&T teammate.
Off the ball, Ruiz spat on Eve and the Joe Public player - who had been
used to promote T&T's war campaign in the build-up to the match -
lost his head and elbowed his man in full view of the entire Oval.
Ruiz bundled over clutching his face, and after the Mexicans protested,
referee Mane consulted with one of his assistants before producing the
red card.
T&T then held on till the break but the Mexicans pressed hard for
the equaliser immediately after the restart.
And, after again initially holding off the opposition, T&T
relinquished the lead. After Ince had managed to parry an effort from
substitute Jared Borguetti, the T&T defence failed to clear the
loose ball far enough down field.
The ball eventually made its way to Pardo and he unleashed a powerful
right-footer from 22 metres out into the upper right-hand corner of
Ince's net. Thereafter, T&T fought desperately for another goal.
But the visitors countered with swarming defence and the odd, swift
counter-attack. And although they lost Rafael Marquez to a second yellow
card 15 minutes from the end, they kept T&T out to preserve a
crucial point.