COACH Leo Beenhakker is the first to admit that his "Warriors" did not play well, but he is still appreciative of their effort in securing a 1-1 draw with Honduras in their opening match of the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup at Miami's Orange Bowl on Wednesday night.
Beenhakker hopes for a better showing tomorrow, when they meet surprise group leaders Panama, who upset Group A favourites Colombia 1-0 in the opening match of the tournament on Wednesday.
"I am the first one who can confirm that we didn't play well," said the T&T coach. "We lost a lot of balls, and we had not so much ball possession as we want."
Beenhakker attributed the sluggish performance to rustiness on the part of his charges, whom he said had not found their rhythm.
"When six or seven players of your team are coming out of holidays and it's their first match in more or less a month, especially the English guys, the Scottish guys, then you need some more time," he suggested.
However, the 62-year-old Dutchman is confident that both the standard of play in the tournament and his team's own performance will improve.
Beenhakker feels there are many areas Trinidad and Tobago need to improve on their opening showing and if they can perform well below best and still get a point, then there was hope for a much better showing against Pan-ama tomorrow.
"In that way, I am very happy with this match tonight. Hondu-ras was...eh, it was a very competitive match and, well, I expect that the team will pick it up and give a better performance next Saturday."
Beenhakker would have been relatively pleased with Trinidad and Tobago's opening play in their match against Honduras when left midfielder Densil Theobald was skimming an early shot just wide of the Honduran far post.
Stern John then had a chance to put his team ahead in the 20th minute when put clear of the Honduran defence by Dennis Lawrence's downward header into the box from Chris Birchall's crossball.
But John, installed as captain for the match, telegraphed his shot, allowing Honduran goalkeeper Victor Coello to easily snap up his soft effort.
However, seven minutes later, Birchall picked up a short pass from striker Jason Scotland atop the penalty area and curled an unstoppable shot to the right of Coello's reach to give T&T a 1-0 lead.
But, once in front, T&T stopped playing, allowing Honduras to gain control of the match.
Warriors goalkeeper Kelvin Jack was almost a spectator two minutes later when Wilmer Velasquez's outside-of-the-foot shot drifted wide of his far post, but the Scotland-based Dundee United custodian was made to earn his keep later on.
Honduras regularly breached the Trinidad and Tobago left flank, where Mario Guerro often ghosted by Brent Rahim and rightback Cyd Gray.
Finally, Honduras pulled level at 1-1 in the 43rd minute through hard-kicking defender Maynor Figueroa, whose hard, low free-kick from the top of the penalty area gave Jack no chance as it rocketed into the Trinidad and Tobago net.
Honduras threatened to get by an unconvincing-looking T&T defence several times in the second half, but it was the Warriors who almost won the game eight minutes from the end, when substitute Collin Samuel struck the Honduran crossbar with a long-range shot.
In his effort to keep the ball out of his net, Honduran keeper Coello aggravated an old injury to his right shoulder, which he dislocated, and is very likely out of the tournament.
Honduran coach Jose de La Paz felt the match was one they could have won had they kept their composure in the last 25 yards and said that the draw makes it more difficult for them to qualify out of the group.
"Colombia is the team that I respect the most," he said. "And since we tied, we have to go out there and get a result against a team that is in my mind still favourites for the tournament."
CONCACAF GOLD CUP RESULTS:
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 1
Christopher Birchall-27th
HONDURAS 1
Maynor Figueroa-43rd
PANAMA 1
COLOMBIA 0
TEAMS:
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO: 21-Kelvin Jack (Goalkeeper) - 3-Avery John, 4-Marvin Andrews, 6-Dennis Lawrence, 7-Christopher Birchall, 9-Aurtis Whitley, 10-Jason Scotland (71: 15-Kenwyne Jones), 11-Brent Rahim, 14-Stern John-C, 18-Densill Theobald (65: 20-Colin Samuel), 24-Cyd Gray.
Booked: Rahim 23', John 54'
Head coach: Leo Beenhakker.
HONDURAS: 1-Victor Coello (86: 22-Junior Morales), 2-Asthor Henriquez, 3-Mayor Figueroa, 6-Junior Izaguirre, 9-Jose Francisco Ramirez (46: 11-Milton Nunez), 10-Wilmer Velasquez-C, 13-Mario Berrios, 14-Oscar Garcia, 19-Elvis Danilo Turcios (65: 8-Wilson Palacios), 21-Erick Vallecilo, 23-Mario Ivan Guerrero.
Booked: Berrios 90'+
Head coach: Jose De La Paz
Referee: Mauricio NAVARRO (CAN)