OVER TWO SEASONS of the CONCACAF Caribbean Cup (CCC), and local champions AC Port of Spain Football Club have rightly earned a reputation as being defensively brittle.
On Tuesday night, they caved again, losing a two-goal first half lead and falling 3-2 to Cibao of the Dominican Republic. Defeat eliminated the Capital Boys, and again left them without a win in the competition. They also lost the lead for the fourth time in the 2024 CCC. While AC PoS are now out, Cibao have qualified for the semi-finals.
Having spent 2008–2011 with W Connection, 41-year-old veteran Cibao goalie Miguel Lloyd would know a few things about Trinidad and Tobago football. He would have seen talented players similar to AC Port of Spain’s, but probably better teams as well.
Nathaniel Garcia, the 31-year-old older brother of AEK Athens forward Levi Garcia, would have also seen some things, having won a few Pro League titles with Central FC before playing abroad with clubs in India and Nepal. He spoke some truths Tuesday night.
“We put up a good fight in the first half and just seemed to give the team the win in the second half, “Garcia said; “almost every game.”
While they were putting up a fight, the Capital Boys built a two-goal lead, with late first-half strikes. Forward Shackiel “Smek” Henry, a former Point Fortin Civic and W Connection striker who spent some time playing professionally in Vietnam, put AC PoS ahead in the 38th minute, before Jameel Neptune, the left-back who often does more attacking than defending, put them up 2-0 in the 40th.
Neptune set up the first, his left-side cross, met by Henry’s diving header, and for the second goal, Henry then applied a superb side-volley finish to a rebound from Sedale McClean’s blocked shot. But given how they have folded in the competition, it takes a long stretch of the imagination to consider AC Port of Spain a professional team.
Talented, yes but probably semi-professional at best. Truly professional teams seldom, and as easily, repeat the same mistakes match after match - that is, allow the opponents to play freely, uncontested and openly. Not that the Capital Boys did not have second half chances. McClean forced a vital save from Lloyd, and the captain Duane Muckette missed the far corner from a tight angle. But since no one bothers to mark the opponents, once AC PoS cannot out gun the opposition, they cannot win.
“We need to start competing,” an obviously dejected Garcia lamented, “not just winning the Pro League and think we are the perfect team. We need to go back to the drawing board, play harder, train harder, and learn from our mistakes.”
In the second half, AC Port of Spain let in three goals, the first two via uncontested headers from corner-kicks, and the winner coming from a straight pass down their middle, to an unmarked opponent.
From a corner, Jean López got an uncontested header to pull Cibao back in the contest at 2-1 in the 63rd minute, and Rivaldo Correa (75th and 89th) repeated with another header to pull his team level at 2-2. And with the match near completion, just when one thought that at least AC PoS did not throw away the entire game, well, they did it again.
Correa was totally unmarked, down the middle of the penalty area, a straight pass picking him out when he collected the ball and rocketed a straight shot, one too powerful for even vaunted shot-blocker and T&T national goalkeeper Denzil Smith to even get a hand to.
SOURCE: T&T Express