“Mission not yet accomplished”.
That was the general feeling in the Trinidad and Tobago senior team camp after they enjoyed one of their more comprehensive victories in international competition in recent years by way of a 10-0 thrashing of Anguilla in their closing Group 5 fixture at Warner Park, Basseterre on Sunday night.
Caledonia AIA forward Jamal Gay led the way with a first half beavertrick while Philadelphia Union midfielder Keon Daniel also struck a hattrick before the interval to leave the “Soca Warriors” ahead 7-0 at the break.
Vietnam-based Willis Plaza notched a double and debutant Sylvester Teesdale added one more and four assists to leave T&T sitting pretty at the top of the table on nine points, scoring fifteen goals and conceding one in three matches.
The last time T&T were that dominant in a competitive outing was in 1989 in a Caribbean Cup qualifier, defeating Aruba 11-0 in St George’s with Richard Fraser and Paul Elliot Allen both scoring beavertricks.
T&T went on to win the Cup that year, defeating Grenada 2-1 in the final on a Dwight Yorke double.
Current head coach Hutson Charles was a member of that winning team but after Sunday’s heavy win, he admitted that T&T still has some work to put it before putting their hands on the Cup they last captured in 2001.
“We did exactly what we came here to do which was to get nine points. We achieved that but the mission is far from over,” Charles told TTFF Media.
“The next round will be tough and we definitely have to get some reinforcements. We have already started planning. We had a meeting earlier today and we have already been communicating with the others back home about the preparations for the next stage. We will be looking at some of the possible additions to the team for the next phase.
“I think the results here meant a lot for us, especially the players and everyone back home who would like to see the football go forward, especially in light of everything that occurred before we got to St Kitts.
Hopefully we are sending the right signals and we can continue to progress towards the Finals and onward to the Gold Cup next year,” Charles added.
The match on Sunday night started half hour late due to inclement weather conditions. There was heavy overnight rain which continued for much of Sunday morning with the island being under Tropical Storm alert. But that definitely didn’t damper the men from the Twin-island Republic.
They dominated throughout against 204th ranked Anguilla which lost its 2014 World Cup qualifiers 2-0 and 4-0 to Dominican Republic last year.
They were hoping to have a better showing after managing a goal in their 4-1 loss to French Guiana on Friday. Those same opponents whipped St Kitts 3-0 later on Sunday to advance as the second placed team from Group 5.
Gay headed home from close range on a right side cross by Kevon Carter seven minutes into the action. Four minutes later Daniel would unleash a low left footer which beat goalkeeper Kevin Liddie to his right. Clyde Leon was the provider on that occasion.
Anguilla hardly had time to recover before Gay grabbed his second item of the night, connecting to Carter’s right side ball on the near post in the 14th minute.
Eleven minutes later before Gay decided it was time for his hattrick when he shot home on the second attempt after Liddie blocked his first attempt on a pass by Teesdale. At that point, the rains were belting down with strong winds coming across Warner Park.
The T&T bench was blown over and the substitutes and staff had to gather muscle to put it back into position. It seemed quite funny to them at that point, perhaps the comfortable lead made the occasion less up tight and at least their bench was back upright as the half approached.
There was still time however for three further goals. Daniel struck another left footer past Liddie from the edge of the box in the 37th and then Teasdale slipped one through for an onrushing Gay to hammer home a minute later.
Daniel got his hattrick in the 40th when he played the ball over the line from close up after Carter’s drive was held up in the water.
Devorn Jorsling came on in the second half and missed a couple good chances to join the scoring party.
But Plaza made sure to get push his tally to three in the series. He sidefooted home from a Teesdale right side cross in the 52nd and headed home another Teesdale delivery on a move started in the middle involving Hughtun Hector and Daneil Cyrus.
Teesdale finally got his goal when his shot bounced off Liddie into the left corner of the net. Skipper Williams had to make one good stop to keep the clean sheet, pulling off a good save low down to deny Kenny Williams in the 76th.
Next up, T&T will play at home from November 14th when they host Cuba, Suriname and the runners up from among another first round group being contested by Guyana, St Vincent/Grenadines, St Lucia and Curacao.
The top two teams will then advance to the eight-nation Caribbean Cup Finals in Antigua in December from which four teams will advance to next year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
The T&T team will return on Monday barring flight delays out of St Kitts and Antigua due to the weather conditions.
Teams
T&T: - 1.Jan Michael Williams (capt), 5.Carlyle Mitchell (6.Kareem Moses 54th), 20.Seon Power, 17.Daneil Cyrus, 3.Joevin Jones, 8.Sylvester Teesdale, 2.Clyde Leon, 7.Hughtun Hector, 19.Keon Daniel (14.Willis Plaza 46th) 11.Kevon Carter, 15.Jamal Gay (9.Devorn Jorsling 46th)
Unused Subs: - Marvin Phillip, Kevon Neaves, Richard Roy, Curtis Gonzales.
Coach: - Hudson Charles (T&T).
Anguilla: - Kelvin Liddie (Kareem Burris 23rd), Adonijah Richardson (Kion Lee 46th), Kevin Hawley, Leon Jeffers, Ashton Dumas, Germain Hughes, Terrence Rodgers, Girdon Connor, Damian Bailey, Kenny Williams, Khalid Brooks (Jermain Hodge 73rd).
Coach: - Colin Johnson (Anguilla).
Referee: - Sherwin Johnson (Guyana).
P W T L GF GA GD Pts
T&T 3 0 0 15 1 +14 9
French Guiana 3 2 0 1 8 5 +3 6
St. Kitts 3 1 0 2 2 4 -2 3
Anguilla 3 0 0 3 1 16 -15 0
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