Trinidad and Tobago's national Under-20 footballers will be back hard at training next week as they seek to shake off the disappointment of a 2-0 defeat to Nicaragua in the Bolivar Invitational Cup tournament in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela on Thursday.
After promising 2-2 and 1-1 draws with Cameroon and Ecuador, the Zoran-Vranes coached team were hoping to end the tournament on a high but instead suffered the loss to Nicaragua.
Missing four starters, T&T, including defender Akeem Adams, striker Jerrel Britton and forward Johan Peltier, were pressing for the go-ahead goal but there was no coming back once they conceded their second goal.
Venezuela finished winners of the tournament after drawing 3-3 with Cameroon, while Panama finished second with a 2-1 win over Ecuador. T&T finished in the cellar spot with two points.
"Generally it was not a bad tournament for us but we are disappointed with the result of the last game," Vranes told TTFF Media.
"We played a lot better in matches before that but we did not maintain the form to take up to a better result against Nicaragua. But this is behind us now.
I had the chance to see the players on the international stage for the first time other than the match against Guyana and there are some very good things in this team that I believe can make us into a formidable opponent.
We will work on some of the areas where we went wrong for the upcoming matches against St Vincent," Vranes added.
The team were scheduled home last night. T&T will meet St Vincent on November 16 and 23 in their Caribbean Football Union home-and-away qualifier.