DEFENDING champions Trinidad and Tobago efficiently overwhelmed the Dominican Republic 7-0 while Martinique and St. Lucia played to a goalless draw at the start of the 1991 Shell Caribbean Cup finals at the National Stadium Thursday night.
First-timers Dominican Republic, who upset Haiti in the preliminary round, were outplayed by a more professional Trinidadian lineup who raced to a 4-0 lead at half time.
The Trinidadian professionals with Portuguese club Academica, Leonson Lewis and Russell Latapy showed their worth with a pair of goals each. Lewis started the shooting spree in the seventh minute and returned five minutes to half time to hammer home his second and Trinidad and Tobago's fourth goal of the match.
Latapy, a midfield magician, dumped his two goals in the 70th and 89th minutes to seal the 7-0 drubbing. All the Trinidadian goals were scored during the run of play.
Anton Thomas (10th), Paul Elliott-Allen (25th), and substitute Dexter Skeene (63rd) got the other goals for the visitors.
The Trinidadians are defending champions from the first Cup finals in 1989 as the last tournament was aborted due to a coup attempt.
The Martinique and St. Lucia match was a far more even affair and despite some chances at opening their accounts the two teams held on for a draw.
Both goalkeepers, Kenny Abernaty of St. Lucia, and Marc Lagler of Martinique, were outstanding.
Martinique's captain Jose Marie-Rose gave a skillful display in midfield, but the hard-running St. Lucians gave the small crowd of about 2,000 a lot more to cheer about than the individual show of Marie-Rose.
The two leading teams from this tournament qualify for a shot at the US$100,000-dollar CONCACAF Gold Cup in Los Angeles later this year.