Venezuela thrashes T&T 4-0

Af­ter a gut­sy 4-5 loss to Pana­ma on Wednes­day, coach Stu­art Charles-Fevri­er made a few changes to his start­ing line-up as he sought a change in his side’s for­tunes.

But that didn't pre­vent the same types of blun­ders that ac­count­ed for their loss in the first game from be­ing re­peat­ed ear­ly on.

In­stead, it was the Venezue­lans who drew first blood when Deivi Her­nan­dez ben­e­fit­ted from a neat through-ball and he ri­fled his shot past goal­keep­er Tris­tan Ed­wards in the 22nd minute.

A minute be­fore the half­time in­ter­val, the Venezue­lans went two-goals up cour­tesy an­oth­er de­fen­sive er­ror. An un­marked Car­los Tor­res was picked out from a right-side cor­ner as the T&T de­fence failed to at­tack the ball and when it reached Tor­res, the Venezue­lan strik­er turned it past Ed­wards for a com­fort­able ad­van­tage go­ing to the break.

There­after, Venezuela dom­i­nat­ed the sec­ond half but had to wait un­til the 77th minute to score when Klins­mann Gomez found room on top the area and curled his shot wide of a div­ing Ed­wards in goal for the 3-0 lead.

And with T&T hard­ly pro­duc­ing any re­sis­tance there­after, sub­sti­tute Ed­win Brit­to sealed the win when he raced past his mark­er in­to the T&T de­fence and calm­ly slot­ted the ball past Ed­wards in the 94th minute.

In the ear­li­er game on the night, Pana­ma and Mex­i­co played to a 1-1 stale­mate.

T&T will next face Mex­i­co Sun­day while Venezuela will take on Pana­ma.

Results

Mexico 1 (Kevin Madrigal 42), Panama 1 (Reymundo Williams 19) at Hasely Crawford Stadium;

Trinidad and Tobago 0, Venezuela 4 (Deivi Hernandez 22, Carlos Torres 44, Klinsmann Gomez 77, Edwin Britto 90+4) at Hasely Crawford Stadium.

(Teams)

Trinidad and Tobago (4-3-3): 18.Tristan Edwards (GK); 19.Isaiah Thompson, 4.Jaron Pascall (6.Jaheim Marshall 62), 12.Tristan Stafford (5.Tyrik Trotman 68), 3.Dawn St Rose; 8.Molik Jesse Khan (10.Nathaniel James 62), 13.Kassidy Davidson, 15.Dantaye Gilbert; 7.Abdul-Quddoos Hypolite (17.Jaheim Faustin halftime), 16.Caleb Borneo (9.Ja-Shawn Thomas 62), 14.Jovonn Gomes (11.Josiah Wilson 62).

Unused Substitutes: 1.Kanye Lazarus (GK), 2.Christian Bailey.

Coach: Stuart Charles-Fevrier

Venezuela (4-4-2): 12.Frankarlos Gutierrez (GK); 2.Alex Fernandez (13.Alex Cacique 81), (captain), 4.Nicolas Morillo, 15.Carlos Torres (5.Javier Torres 85), 3.Adrian Jose; 18.Luis Zambrano (10.Jesus Anuel 66), 14.Sebastian Marin, 8.Cesar Correia, 17.Santiago Tarano (19.Lewuis Diaz 66); 11.Deivi Hernandez (9.Carlos Gonzalez 85), 7.Klinsmann Gomez (16.Edwin Britto 81).

Unused Substitutes: 1.Kelvin Garcia (GK), 6.Aaron Perez.

Coach: Frank Tamanaco Piedrahita

Fevrier's Reactions after Friday night's defeat to Venezuela

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They were better than us — Charles-Fevrier

'Very dis­ap­point­ing' is how na­tion­al coach Stu­art Charles Fevri­er de­scribed his team's los­ing per­for­mance against Venezuela at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo on Fri­day night. The T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion Youth In­vi­ta­tion­al Foot­ball Tour­na­ment which is prepa­ra­tion ahead of the CON­CA­CAF Un­der-15 Cham­pi­onship in Au­gust.

An un­der-strength T&T Un­der-15 team was out­classed 4-0 by their Venezue­lan op­po­nents and the coach high­light­ed sev­er­al rea­sons why this hap­pened, at the post-match in­ter­view. "Our play­ers had prob­lems cop­ing with the move­ment and ro­ta­tion of the Venezue­lans, the way they sup­port­ed the ball, the way they al­ways have num­bers around the ball, their tech­ni­cal abil­i­ty and their game-un­der­stand­ing as well," Charles-Fevri­er ex­plained.

He not­ed, if you look back at the match you will see that our play­ers still de­pend too much on in­di­vid­ual play, while the Venezue­lans played more team-foot­ball, say­ing their game was based on one-two touch­es in a col­lec­tive ef­fort, while we still tend to de­pend on the bril­liance of a play­er to get through.

On Fri­day night the young War­riors went a goal down as ear­ly as the 22 min­utes when Deivi Her­nan­dez got a free reign in­side the T&T de­fence and ri­fled the ball past goal­keep­er Tris­tan Ed­wards in the 22nd minute.

And with the game head­ing to­ward the half-time in­ter­val, the South Amer­i­cans, went two-goals up when the T&T de­fence failed to pick up Car­los Tor­res from a 44th-minute right-side cor­ner, and when the ball reached him, he skill­ful­ly guid­ed it past a strand­ed Ed­wards for the ad­van­tage. The sit­u­a­tion wors­ened in the sec­ond half, as coach Charles-Fevri­er sought to ho­n­our a com­mit­ment to award all his play­ers at least 60-min­utes of play in the tour­na­ment, by mak­ing changes.

But it was more than just that, as the su­pe­ri­or play of the Venezue­lans award­ed them with two more goals in the sec­ond ses­sion.

Klins­mann Gomez, in the 77th minute skil­ful­ly curled a shot past Ed­wards from on top the area, for a three-goal cush­ion, and Ed­win Brit­to sealed the win with a 94th-minute item.

Charles-Fevri­er said he will not pres­sure his young play­ers for the re­sult, as it is a de­vel­op­ment tour­na­ment, but said they can on­ly learn from their ex­pe­ri­ences. He called for his team to play more games against North Amer­i­can, Cen­tral Amer­i­can and South Amer­i­can op­po­si­tion in the fu­ture if they are to progress and qual­i­fy for in­ter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tions.

The T&T team will next spring in­to ac­tion to­day on the fi­nal day of com­pe­ti­tion at the Ato Boldon Sta­di­um in Bal­main, Cou­va. T&T will again play the fea­ture match at 7:15 pm tonight against CON­CA­CAF gi­ants Mex­i­co, a match that will fol­low a 5:30 pm con­test be­tween Pana­ma and Venezuela.

Charles-Fevri­er said, "We have to pick our­selves up and try to give a bet­ter per­for­mance against the Mex­i­cans," how­ev­er, he re­mind­ed the me­dia that his play­ers are up against young play­ers who are al­ready play­ing in a pro­fes­sion­al sys­tem, and some who are al­ready pros.