United States		Trinidad & Tobago

Concacaf Gold Cup

Date	Venue	Location	Attendance
2007-06-09	Home Depot Center	Carson, CA, United States	27000

No upset at T&T suffers double loss

Trinidad and Tobago’s senior team didn’t pull off the hopeful upset of the 2007 CONCACAF A Gold Cup as they conceded goals on either side of the break, going down 2-0 to the United States in the second game of a Group B Double header at the Home Depot Center on Saturday. Playing before a capacity crowd of 27,000 in cool conditions, T&T suffered more than a loss of three points as defender Anthony Noreiga was sandwiched by goalie Jan Michael Williams and American Brian Ching as he went up in an attempt to clear a left side ball. The end result was Noreiga suffering a concussion and had to be rushed to the Harbour UCLA hospital after staying on the ground unmoved for seven minutes. He regained consciousness shortly after being escorted to the ambulance and was undergoing tests last night. This incident brought flashbacks of the Marvin Lee injury at the Concacaf Centre of Excellence Marvin Lee Stadium in 2001. Back then it was another clash (at U20 level) between T&T and USA also involving current US skipper Landon Donovan and T&T doctor Terrence Babwah was also the man on the scene. Fortunately Noreiga was later described as being stable up to Saturday night. His exit forced Wim Rijsbergen to put on Christon Baptiste as T&T tried to settle. As early as the 4th minute T&T looked shaky at the back and Williams was called into early action to prevent Eddie Johnson from opening the scoring. Williams also advanced to force Ching’s effort over bar after he was put through by Jonathan Spector. Midway through the first half, the bass line of a T&T rhythm section could be heard but the home side supporters were far out in numbers as they urged their team on. Williams came up big on a one on one with Ching in the 28th minute but a minute later the latter had edge. Justin Mapp went past Seon Power on the left and played the ball over for Ching to slot home from close range after his perfectly timed run. The goal woke T&T up though and they actually had the better of the exchanges in the goalmouth area nearing the interval. Kerry Baptiste’s teasing right side cross has the USA back line scrambling and then Roberts held off his marker strongly before playing over for Baptiste (C) only to have his attempt blocked by a defender on the left of the 6 yard box. Within that space of three minutes, Theobald pressed again as he intercepted a pass midway in USA’s half and rushed a pass forward to Roberts but the Sparta Rotterdam man fired over from atop the 18. In added on time, first match scorer Silvio Spann went for glory again and almost left Kasey Keller strung with his left sided free kick from 30 yards out. The kick caught Keller moving to right before it swerved the opposite side narrowly missing the right post on its way out. Then Toussaint was sent through before defender Michael Parkhurts recovered to thwart his attempt on goal.Soon after Spann’s left side corner had Keller punching out to safety. At the opposite end Williams also had to make a solid stop on Johnson’s attempt on the stroke of half time. The late surge should have encouraged the T&T players and its fans but Rijsbergen’s charges didn’t take it over in the second half. And the Americans, resting several of its starters from the previous game, introduced influential skipper Landon Donovan as they tried to finish off the visitors. On 54 minutes, USA doubled their advantage. A quick run by Donovon caught T&T napping at the back and as he drew attention, he unselfishly laid off for Johnson to shoot past a hapless Williams. T&T never caused much of a threat after that until the last five minutes of the match. Baptiste (K) forced Keller to pull off his toughest save of the match and then Spann also forced the veteran goalie into action moments before the end. T&T will now seek to earn its first set of points, hopefully a win against Guatemala on Tuesday in Boston as it makes a last ditch attempt to sneak in the second round as a possible best third place finisher. The contingent leaves on Sunday morning for Boston. Guatemala edged El Salvador 1-0 in the earlier fixture on Saturday. T&T: 21-Jan Michael Williams, 5-Keyeno Thomas, 17-Seon Power, 6-Thomas Nickelson (8-Kerry Baptiste, 24), 20- Anthony Noriega (13-Christon Baptiste, 20), 2-Romauld Aguillera, 16-Silvio Spann, 18-Densill Theobald, 15-Andrei Pacheco (7-Trent Noel, 81), 11-Andre Toussaint, 14-Darryl Roberts Subs not used: 1-Daurance Williams, 4-Dwayne Jack, 9- Errol McFarlane, 23-Kendall Jagdeosingh USA: 18-Kasey Keller (capt.); Frank Simek, 12-Jay DeMerit, Michael Parkhurst, 4-Jonathan Spector; 14-Steve Ralston, 5-Benny Feilhaber (10-Landon Donovan, 46), 19-Ricardo Clark, 21-Justin Mapp; 11-Brian Ching (6-Michael Bradley, 65), 9-Eddie Johnson (20-Taylor Twellman, 72) Subs not used: 1-Tim Howard; 2-Frankie Hejduk, 3-Carlos Bocanegra, 7-DaMarcus Beasley

LINEUP
21.	Jan-Michael Williams
20.	Anthony Noreiga
	20' Christian Baptiste
17.	Seon Power
5.	Keyeno Thomas 51 '
6.	Nickolson Thomas
	24' Kerry Baptiste
2.	Romauld Aguillera
15.	Andrei Pacheco 77 '
	81' Trent Noel
16.	Silvio Spann
7.	Densill Theobald (capt.)
14.	Darryl Roberts
11.	Andre Toussaint
SUBSTITUTES
13.	Christian Baptiste
7.	Trent Noel
8.	Kerry Baptiste
1.	Daurance Williams
4.	Dwayne Jack
23.	Kendall Jagdeosingh
9.	Errol McFarlane
COACH
	Wilhelmus Rijsbergen
SUBSTITUTIONS
20'	Christian Baptiste for Anthony Noreiga
24'	Kerry Baptiste for Nickolson Thomas
81'	Trent Noel for Andrei Pacheco
YELLOW CARDS
51'	Keyeno Thomas
77'	Andrei Pacheco