The Trinidad and Tobago national under-20 football team had its 2013 Turkey World Cup dream extinguished today after a shock 1-0 loss to Curacao in Kingston, Jamaica.
The defeat saw the young “Soca Warriors” finish bottom of Group A on goal difference while Haiti and Puerto Rico advanced automatically to the CONCACAF stage.
Puerto Rico and Haiti played to a 1-1 tie in the second match this evening at the Waterhouse Stadium.
It was a tame end for Trinidad and Tobago who downed Puerto Rico 2-0 on Monday but never looked like matching that early success thereafter.
Curacao scored first against Haiti and Puerto Rico but failed to hold on and lost 2-1 on both occasions.
Trinidad and Tobago could not break them down, though.
Much was expected of DirecTV W Connection midfielder Jomal Williams going into the tournament. His subsequent output was deemed so underwhelming that coach Ross Russell started him on the substitutes’ bench for today’s crucial fixture.
Trailing by a 10th minute goal from Geryon Alberto, Russell introduced Williams at the start of the second half.
Either way, the impact was negligible.
The under-20 team now has the unwelcome distinction of being the only Trinidad and Tobago team that failed to advance to the CONCACAF stage in this calender year.
Round-up with Flex Mohammed.
CFU Under-20 Results.
Curacao 1 (Geryon Alberto 10) v Trinidad and Tobago 0
Haiti 1 (Chery Johnley 86) v Puerto Rico 1 (Jose Abrams 38)
Teams:
Trinidad and Tobago: - Quesi Weston; Damani Richards, Anthony Charles, Alvin Jones, Neil Benjamin (Shaquille Holder 58th), socawarriors.net, Xavier Rajpaul (Yellow 19), Akeem Garcia (Yellow 72), Shaquille Nesbitt (Jomal Williams 46th), Duane Muckette (capt), Marcus Gomez (Yellow 68), Dwight Quintero (Shackiel Henry 74th).
Coach: - Ross Russell (T&T).
Curaçao: - Zeus de la Paz; Shuremy Felomina (Yellow 41), Ruchendro Kierindongo, Christopher Isenia, Nathan Martina (Rowendley Poppen 87th), Quintón Christina (Reangelo Albertus 80th), Richenel Lourens, Michaël Maria, Geryon Alberto (Randel Winklaar 46th), Irvingly van Eijma, Ayrton Statie (Yellow 34).
Coach: - Ludwig Alberto (Curaçao).
Referee: - Marcos Brea (Cuba).
Venue: - Waterhouse Stadium Kingston, Jamaica.
Attendance: - 200.
Standings - Group A
P W T L GF GA GD Pts
X - Haiti 3 2 1 0 5 2 +3 7
X - Puerto Rico 3 1 1 1 3 4 -1 4
Curaçao 3 1 0 2 3 4 -1 3
Trinidad & Tobago 3 1 0 2 2 3 -1 3
Standings - Group B
P W T L GF GA GD Pts
X - Jamaica 2 2 0 0 4 0 +4 6
X - Cuba 2 2 0 0 4 1 +3 6
Antigua & Barbuda 2 0 0 2 0 3 -3 0
Suriname 2 0 0 2 1 5 -4 0
X - Clinched a place in February's CONCACAF finals in Puebla, Mexico..
Note: - The win left Curacao in third place with three points, just ahead of Trinidad on head-to-head results. The top two teams in each group of the Caribbean finals along with the best third-place team qualify.