TRINIDAD and Tobago defender Cyd Gray plays with his heart on his sleeve and often with his brain somewhere far away.
Both teams are still level on five points, with Guatemala having a better goal difference, but the balance has shifted in favour of Trinidad and Tobago.
Having already picked up four points on the road, the Warriors complete the semi-final round with home matches against group winners United States (12 points) on Wednesday and finally Cuba on November 19.
Guatemala, with a single road point, play the same teams, but away from home.
Saturday's match was gripping, nerve-wracking, and close. Trinidad and Tobago had the two clearest scoring opportunities when both Carlos Edwards and Jason Scotland breached the Guatemalan defence, but struck the ball straight at goalkeeper Ricardo Foster.
A close-up goal from Guatemalan Carlos Ruiz was disallowed in the 70th minute, after the striker was caught offside having netted the rebound when T&T keeper Clayton Ince spilled Guatemalan captain Guillermo "Pando" Rodriguez's hard, low shot.
And T&T captain Dwight Yorke almost won the match in the 87th with a free-kick that crashed off the left post.
It might well have been God's blessing that Yorke had not bagged the winner.
The Chipanas, as the Guatemalan national squad are called, met unconditional support on entering "El Mateo", the stadium named after the Guatemalan who won the 1952 Boston Marathon.
Not a single ticket was to be had on match day, leaving thousands of desperate fans outside and well over the 30,000 capacity crammed inside "El Mateo", which was transformed into a boiling cauldron of hostility and fanaticism by the blue and white-painted supporters.
Enough soldiers were around to start a small war.
Guatemalans were whipped into festive frenzy hours before kick-off and few in Trinidad and Tobago would have experienced such intimidation, or the humiliation of hearing T&T's national anthem disrespectfully booed in the pre-game ceremony.
Afterwards, Guatemalans obviously saw the drawn game as a defeat and many hurled a barrage of profanity and racial taunts at the small contingent of Trinidad and Tobago fans who flew in for the match.
Trinis started speaking of "the Bahrain experience", but under a watchful military guard the T&T group remained in "El Mateo" until the Guatemalan mob left.
Guatemala also has good people and some did shake hands and gracefully offer their congratulations.
On the field, the Guatemalan footballers appeared wanting to win at any cost, taking the game to the visitors, but also using rough play and trying to con free-kicks and yellow cards out of the gullible Canadian referee.
After surviving the initial onslaught, Trinidad and Tobago had their chances.
Edwards looked dangerous in attack at wide right and, when picked out by Yorke's long, diagonal cross, just missed finding either the centrally-placed Russell Latapy or Scotland at the back post in the eighth minute.
Soon after, Edwards was again sprung and should have hit first time, but instead gave the keeper a chance to save when turning onto his less-favoured left foot.
At 40 years old, Latapy was a spent force by half-time, but his sweet touches kept Guatemala off-guard while he was on the field.
Trinidad and Tobago also got tireless commitment in midfield from Chris Birchall and Anthony Wolfe, while Yorke maintained his high standard for a long time.
Substitutes Cornell Glen and Keon Daniel also did a good job of keeping Guatemala defending.
Guatemala's Honduran coach Ramon Maradiaga dropped to three defenders at the start of the second half to exploit their extra man, but made no impression as T&T coach Francisco Maturana's line of four defenders lost nothing with Gray's ejection, as Edwards proved a more solid option.
Guatemala were restricted to shots from distance, although highly dangerous ones from hard-kicking Guillermo Ramirez. And, goalie Ince was solid, getting to the ball before both Luis Rodriguez and Freddy Garcia on the couple occasions Guatemala actually breached the Soca Warriors' defence.
Before the Guatemala match, Maturana looked like a man facing a public lynching. He has now gotten a reprieve and probably will get a presidential pardon with a similar draw against the USA on Wednesday.
If Maturana leads T&T to their first World Cup qualifying win over the USA, he will probably be a strong candidate for Prime Minister.