Trinidad and Tobago’s Under 20 footballers, still in search of their first win on their international tour, would have left the Abuja National Stadium feeling a bit undone by the refereeing of Nigerian Mi Okpechi following Sunday’s warm up fixture with Nigerian club Abuja FC.
Okpechi blew for a hand ball offence on T&T defender and captain on the evening Curtis Gonzales for what was clearly an unintentional act which also saw the ball making coming off the player’s chest.
Victor Suleiman converted the resulting penalty past goalkeeper Andre Marchan with three minutes left on the clock.
Earlier on T&T had a bright start to proceedings when forward Juma Clarence, who usually comes off the bench, collected a long downfield clearance from Marchan way out on the left of the penalty box and cut in before clinically beating Alex Dauladi on his near right post for a 1-0 T&T lead on seven minutes.
Clarence was lively up front for T&T and the agility of Daniel Joseph saw T&T hanging around the Abuja goal a bit more than previous outings. But the hosts were also eager to impress and never made things easy for them with some robust tackling and quick bursts forward which has been customary features of the Nigerians.
They would get their equalizer in the 20th minute when a left side corner met an unmarked Peter Christopher inside the six yard and he made sure with a cool finish past Marchan.
Six minutes later Christopher brought the best out of Marchan forcing him to go full length to keep out.
Vranes opted to rest several of his regular starters including Leston Paul, goalkeeper Glenroy Samuel, Sean De Silva and Uriah Bentick but the usual bench boys were keen to give a good showing on the evening.
Midfielder Sherron Joseph had two decent long range tries in the second half, both missing the target by a little while midfielder Kevin Molino added some more flair in the middle.
But Marchan, after assisting in T&T’s first goal, turned villain when he gifted Abuja their second goal. After claiming an incoming cross, in a hurry to clear the ball, he played it straight onto one of the Abuja players still positioned inside the penalty box and the loose ball fell perfectly for Dada Bitrus to convert from close range with the ‘keeper scrambling to cover his ground.
Vranes put De Silva, Paul, Jean Luc Rochford and Qian Grosvenor into the play on 73 minutes. And persistence paid off when Paul threaded one through for De Silva on the left channel and he fired home for the equalizer in the 80th minute.
T&T didn’t just put numbers back and try to hold on but instead went in search of a t winner and had couple raids going forward. Grosvenor was unlucky not to get a call in his favour after trying to beat an advancing Dauladi who had raced off his line and clearly blocked the ball with his hands outside the penalty box but there was no call by the referee
Des Silva had one further effort which went over before Okpechi spoilt an even result with his doubtful call minutes from the end.
Vranes in customary fashion, remained upbeat but didn’t particularly liked the referee’s decisions.
“I’m satisfied still. I cannot blame players. The referee saw something different but we cannot argue his call and that of his assistant. But still we made some mistakes against them today,” Vranes told TTFF Media.
“We are progressing and I am very optimistic. Our boys wanted to get a good result today and maybe we were a bit unlucky but the experience is very good for them. They are seeing what it is to play in someone else’s country and what it is to expect no favours. We of course will try to finish the tour strongly in our next game against Nigeria on Tuesday. That is the biggest game for us before we return home,” Vranes concluded.