The last time Trinidad and Tobago came up against Martinique, the result went in favour of the French-speaking islanders by a 3-2 margin. The contest was a Gold Cup qualifying encounter back in April 2003 in Martinique and that loss played a part in stopping T&T from advancing to the 2003 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Well on Monday, the “Soca Warriors” find themselves in a similar situation as they meet one of their more competitive Caribbean opponents from 7:15pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in their second game of the Sedley Joseph group in the ongoing Digicel Caribbean Cup.
In the two previous competitive matches, Martinque also beat the Rene Simoes coached team 1-0 to knock them out of the 2002 Gold Cup and prior to that, stopped the Ian Porterfield team 2-1 in the 2001 Copa Caribe. No player in the current T&T team played in the most recent meeting between the two teams with only striker Gary Glasgow starting in the 2-1 loss.
As such, current team captain Densill Theobald says his team will be taking nothing for granted when they take to the pitch. Head coach Wim Rijsbergen has given his instructions and game plan an Theobald says his men are all geared up to follow it and get the job done.
“We have assessed our performance in the first match and we also saw what Martinique is capable of following their loss to Haiti. We will be patient because the result in this one will be very important because it could determine a lot going into the semi final stage,” Theobald told TTFF Media.
“I think even though we didn’t get the win in the first match, that first match jitters has gone for a lot of the guys and once we settle down early, we should be able to play a decent game and stamp our authority on the match. We need to win but we have to score goals to get those three points. The coach has pointed out the problems we had and I think everyone understands their role. Now it comes down to getting it done on the pitch,” the Caledonia AIA midfielder added.
Rijsbergen was in no mood for excuses as he too knows a result is vitally important because he doesn’t want to be left chasing going into the final group encounter against Haiti.
“We are tied on points now with Barbados and we need results to go on in the tournament. We have seen what the guys can do in the first game and we will try to build on that and hopefully improve our performance for the next game. We are continuing to build and every game plays a part in this. But we know a win will be the best result for us,” Rijsbergen added.
Martinique head coach Guy Michel Nisas also has a win on his mind and he will aim to capitalize on a less experienced team than he has faced when having played T&T in the past.
“We think we are good enough to get a result. We will play our game and try to stop Trinidad from playing. Both teams want to win and it should be an interesting game. We know what we have to do and our players will stick to their task,” Nisas said.