Trinidad and Tobago’s National Under 20 footballers completed their second straight win of their training camp in Cali, Colombia with a 3-1 victory over Depor FC on Thursday evening.
The match proved to be a more challenging one than their previous 6-1 win over the Cali outfit a couple days earlier with the Zoran Vranes-coached outfit getting goals from Jerrel Britto in the 28th and 49th minutes and Alex Knaggs in the 81st minute.
The homeside got on the scoresheet in the 69th minute which made the game 2-1 in favour of T&T at that point with both teams engaging in a stiff physical battle before Knaggs increased T&T’s advantage in the closing ten minutes.
W Connection Shahdon Winchester missed the game through injury while Jerron Morris was also out. Both players are expected to return to action in the coming week.
“This game was a more challenging one for us,” Vranes told TTFF Media. “But this is good. It meant we had a chance to see some different things and to use a couple different players also. I thought physically we were good because the other team were strong in that area and were also organized.
I think we are heading in the right direction and I’m seeing progress. I do not want for us to play our best football at this stage because we still have to focus on the games in Guatemala. What we are doing now is preparing for Cuba and Mexico,” Vranes added.
T&T faces Cuba on March 30 and Mexico on April 1 at the Concacaf Final round in Guatemala City. Four teams from the 12-team tournament advances to the 2011 FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Colombia.
The teams in the other competing groups include hosts Guatemala, Jamaica, Panama, Costa Rica, USA, Canada, Suriname, Honduras and Guadeloupe.
T&T line up: - John Thomas (Stefan Berkely 46th), Dwight Ceballo, Weslie John, Akil Clarke, Akeem Adams, Joevin Jones (Ross Russell Jr. 60th), Sheldon Bateau (Jerron Quashie 60th), Kenaz Williams (Alex Knaggs 60th), Marcus Joseph (Cordell Cato 60th), Jerrel Britto (Isaiah Fergusson 60th), Johan Peltier (Ryan Fredericks 65th).