Garcia strikes with final kick

De­spite the odds stacked against the Rus­sell Lat­apy-coached na­tion­al youth team, it com­plet­ed a 3-2 win against St Vin­cent and the Grenadines (SVG) af­ter trail­ing 2-1 at half­time.

Ear­ly on, Gid­son Fran­cis, who scored a dou­ble, put SVG ahead net­ting the open­ing item in the 15th minute, re­turned four min­utes lat­er to send his team up 2-0, thanks to his head­er four min­utes lat­er.

The John-Paul Rochford-cap­tained T&T out­fit did not go away and had a num­ber of chances at goal but they were off tar­get un­til a de­ter­mined Jay­don Prow­ell found the back of the net in the 39th minute.

The T&T young­sters pressed on but the equalis­er nev­er came and the team closed the first half a goal adrift (2-1).

On the re­sump­tion, T&T was the ag­gres­sor at­tack­ing from ei­ther sides of the field but no goals came. SVG spent most of the half de­fend­ing its lead and looked set to claim a win in the open­er but sub­sti­tute Mark Ramdeen spoiled the Caribbean neigh­bour par­ty with an equalis­er in added on time (90+2).

T&T foot­ballers did not cel­e­brate for long as they were on the at­tack again. Ramdeen po­si­tioned on the left side re­ceived a throw-in from Rochford and at­tempt­ing to cross when he was brought down just out­side the box on the left side. Com­mit­ting the foul was SVG's Lesron Craigg, who swift­ly re­ceived a yel­low card for his in­fringe­ment.

Ramdeen took the free kick and found Gar­cia in­side the six-yard box and he com­plet­ed the win­ner (90+5), sec­onds be­fore the ref­er­ee blew the fi­nal whis­tle.

On Sat­ur­day, T&T will be back on the field in its sec­ond match against Puer­to Ri­co, which was beat­en by the USA 7-1 in its open­ing match.

In oth­er ear­ly re­sults, Suri­name had no mer­cy on the US Vir­gin Is­lands crush­ing its op­po­nent, 13-2, An­tigua and Bar­bu­da whipped St Maarten, 6-1; Cu­ba topped Be­lize, al­so by a 6-1 mar­gin while Haiti edged St Lu­cia, 1-0.

Results

T&T 3 (Jaydon Prowell 39, Mark Ramdeen 90+2, Judah Garcia 90+5) v St Vincent 2 (Gidson Francis 15, 19)

Teams

Trinidad and Tobago: 1.Denzil Smith (GK); 18.Kerdell Sween (4.Jerrin Jackie 46), 5.Justin Homer, 2.Mikel Mieres, 3.Derron John; 19.Shaqkeem Joseph; 12.Kishon Hackshaw, 10.Judah Garcia (Yellow 54), 15.John-Paul Rochford (capt), 13.Nickel Orr (7.Mark Ramdeen 75); 9.Jaydon Prowell (6.Isaiah Lee 75).

Unused substitutes: 20.Jabari Brice (GK), 16.Luke Singh, 17.Matthew Beal, 8.Jabarry Francis, 14.Ethan Bonaparte.

Coach: Russell Latapy.

SVG: 1.Jadiel Chance (GK), 4.Lesron Craigg (Yellow 90), 14.Kenyon Delpesche (Derron Hamblet 73), 3.Dondre Charles, 2.Jay-Z Ryan, 16.Diel Spring, 6.Joel Quashie (capt), 11.Carlos Solomon (20.Brandon Johnson 81), 10.Gidson Francis, 17.Trivis Fraser, 9.Romano Johnson (7.Osei Thompson 58).

Coach: Wade Jackson.

Referee: Daneon Parchment (Jamaica)

CU20M 2018 GS TRI vs VIN Highlights

Post Match Reactions from T&T U-20 Captain John Paul Rochford

Mark Ramdeen reacts after helping T&T U-20s defeat St Vincent/Grenadines