Nicaragua came to the Hasely Crawford Stadium for the first time with the expectation of getting some experience playing against a Caribbean styled national team, similar to Jamaica who defeated them in a close home and away encounter which booted them from the World Cup Russia tournament.
The Warriors engaged them with the expectation of benefiting from a developing Central American style, knowing that they have to face Guatemala within the next month on their path to the second round of the World Cup.
To the fan, the match was attended with enthusiasm following the victorious result against Panama last week.
What we saw was two teams approaching cautiously and ensuring that they used the midfield possession game in order to understand their opponent’s method of defense. The early results showed that the penalty areas were not utilized in the way that progressive teams will want. The Warriors were attempting to pressure the Nicaraguans into error around their own goal, and very nearly achieved their “goal”, except for shoddy attempts at finishing.
The pint sized Central Americans were seen hurrying their decisions while the Warriors went in search of an early goal. They did not have to worry too much as the job of finishing by Kenwyne Jones and his attackers was well short of creativity and clinical accuracy in the final moments of their attacks.
The visitors settled down mainly through their ultimate desire to play their game base upon cohesiveness. Players were not caught in possession, while the probably recipients of a pass showed themselves in convenient spaces vacant enough to allow them to create positive passing options.
They realized that the strongest area in the Warrior’s team was defense. All four defenders have the ability to be aerially strong, tough tacklers and can carry the ball intelligently forward.
Daneil Cyrus and Aubrey David moved down the flanks with speed and good foot skill, features which forced the opponents to consolidate and whenever possible guide the attackers towards the restricted space near the touchlines.
Sometimes, the Warriors attack offered space on the flanks for Juan Perez and Oscar Lopez, vacant because the defenders were slow on recovering from their forward jaunt.
On both sides, the desire to interpass the ball in their own half of the field excessively tended to take the expected creativity off midfielders on both sides, leaving the fans with the hope of some attacking opportunities. Two feeble shots at goal, one from each side, was all that were executed in the first half, although each team reached into the penalty areas, without the composure and eventual aggression to turn half chances into anything, but lose balls.
The second half saw the glitter of Joevin Jones on the left and Trevin Caesar on the right which appeared to be the vulnerable routes. Clearly, four byelines, two each by Jones and Caesar, should have produced at least one goal.
It must be mentioned that although the visitors had greater possession marginally, the number of unforced errors of passing by the Warriors were about two in every five, a percentage which needs to be reduced to even one in every five.
Shots at goal were three by the host and two by the opponents, which created a sombre atmosphere by the good crowd.
Theoretically, the analysts will claim that a home team is usually considered a 2-0 winner, seeing that the visitors are unfamiliar with the surroundings and the crowd support which should have been guaranteed from the sidelines.
No need to mention how much work needs to be done during the month leading up to the Guatemala qualifier away from home.
We do not have a good record when we play in Guatemala and that should invite some more critical training sessions in the department of attacking effectively. The realism is that no goals were scored in 90 minutes, a factor which should be the primary feature of that game.
Coach Hart will have to depend on some astute arrangements where the majority of players are playing at separate clubs across the globe. This may provide a good chance to get players like Keron Cummings, Willis Plaza, add to these names Cato and Trevin Caesar.
I know Hart does not place emphasis upon friendlies locally, just to get his at home players sharp and enthusiastic, but it has its degree of achievement.
Remember, practice makes permanent.