Trinidad and Tobago head coach Francisco Maturana made no excuses for his team’s 2-1 defeat to Grenada on Wednesday except to say that they paid the price for less than flattering finishing on goal at the National Stadium, Kingston.
Speaking after his team gave up a soft goal in the second minute of added on time, Maturana said his team created more than enough chances to take three points from the encounter.
“For us we have definitely a bitter taste with this defeat. It’s very simple… if you have your chances and put them away you are going to win and if you don’t then you are going to lose. We leave here with a bitter taste but our heads are held high knowing that we have to play better in the next game.
“Football is like that… you win and you lose. Crying does not achieve anything. We need to take all that happened today and with those arguments build for the next game.
When asked by reporters whether this was the team that he wanted to take into the tournament, noting that there was an absence of several overseas-based players, Maturana added : “These are the players we have available to us at the moment. We will always do our best with them as these are the best players based in Trinidad. The same applies for the next set of games in the tournament.”
Skipper Aurtis Whitley had little explanation for the team’s defeat.
“There’s not much to say except that our finishing wasn’t up to standard on the day and we allowed Grenada to stay in with a chance of beating us. They did it late and now we have to live with that. I think we should have taken more control and finish our chances but credit to them for sticking it out even after we equalized. Now we have to take the positives and move on,” Whitley told TTFF Media.
Grenada player/coach Anthony Modeste was definitely in a buoyant mood after the win
“We Grenada are extremely happy with the victory today. We have worked hard over the past few months and we were dedicated in doing our job and going forward. We will be taking one game at a time. We have already crossed one hurdle and it’s just to savor this win and get ready for the next game on Friday.
In related news, T&T had to do without the services of striker Errol McFarlane after his Lebanese club Al Mabarrah gave an ultimatum to the player to return within twenty four hours, stating that he did not receive clearance to represent T&T at the tournament. McFarlane was subsequently left out of the team to avoid further complications.
But the big striker received a correspondence from his club on Wednesday night stating that his contract, which ends in June, was terminated with immediate effect. McFarlane intends to stay on with the team in Jamaica and pursue the matter with higher authorities.
The T&T team meantime had a recovery session on Thursday morning and will journey by bus to Montego Bay at midday prior to Friday’s encounter against Barbados.