Before Saturday’s friendly international in Belmopan, this country’s coaching staff wanted to see stronger competition for places in the Trinidad and Tobago squad for the upcoming CONCACAF Gold Cup.
And according to co-head coach Jamaal Shabazz, despite having to settle for 0-0 draw against a consistently improving Belize outfit, there was some good individual performances that could cause selection headaches in the coming months.
Shabazz pointed out Port Vale midfielder Christopher Birchall for his creditable showing in the 90 minutes.
“Chris Birchall definitely brought something to the table. He brought a lot of tactical discipline, simplicity in his play and this guy is a warrior. This guy has a place in this squad under us and we were impressed with his performance today,” he said of Birchall.
“I thought we played against a well organized team and they were good on the counter attack. We saw some good areas in our team in terms of us still maintaining he discipline in being able to put the ball on the ground and play out of the back and our possession is improving. But it was difficult conditions for us to play under especially with a hard, bumpy surface and we did well to come away with a draw,” Shabazz told TTFF Media.
“We saw Joevin Jones combined very well with Keon Daniel on the left and created some problems for the opposition and this was something we saw coming out of the training sessions. We thought the right side did go to sleep today but we saw some very interesting combinations.
“Cornell Glen worked very hard and made some timely runs. The balls did not come early out of the back enough for him though. And Keon Daniel showed very good tactical discipline. The aspect of his game that has improved tremendously is his recovery when we lose the ball.
“Marcus showed in the 20 minutes that he got that he is right there and Jason Marcano showed that he is able to play at this level also and young Mitchell also got in some touches.. All in all it gives us a lot more competition for spots and a good headache for coaches to have,” Shabazz added.
The back line of Carlyle Mitchell, Daneil Cyrus, Curtis Gonzales and Jones as well as goalkeeper Cleon John, playing in his first full international also held their own to ensure T&T did not conced.