Mexico		Trinidad & Tobago

FIFA World Cup™ Qualifier

Date	Venue	Location	Attendance
2004-10-13	Estadío Cuauhtemoc	Puebla, Mexico	40000

T&T downed in Puebla but heads still up

Trinidad and Tobago footballers succumbed to Mexico by a 3-0 scoreline before a partisan 40,000 crowd at the Estadio Cauhtemoc in Puebla on Wednesday night. The “Soca Warriors” went into the game hopeful of coming away with at least a point following their convincing 5-1 victory over St Kitts/Nevis on the weekend but the homeside had different ideas and despite a valiant effort by skipper Angus Eve and his men, T&T will now aim to finishthe semi-final round with 12 points when they face St Vincent and the Grenadines on November 17. Playing away to Mexico was always going to be a tough proposition and having lost 7-0 at this same stage of the 2002 campaign, the odds of a win were much against coach Bertille St Clair’s team. Antonio Naelson scored the opener in the 19th minute with a well placed shot into the far corner past goalkeeper Shaka Hislop. Jaime Lozano scored a brace with goals in the 59th and 85th minutes. His first item came after a couple good stops by Hislop but the defense failed to react allowing Lozano netting from close up. Hislop, though beaten, deserved credit for a handful of good saves. St Clair was disappointed at the end saying that his team gave up two soft goals on the night. “I m a bit disappointed with the result because I thought we could have given a better showing even though we were playing away from home. We gave away two soft goals and that caused Mexico to beat us by three goals but I didn’t think the scoreline really reflected our defeat. “I went into the match experimenting with a few players but we were still lacking some stability in the midfield and that is where things broke down and the Mexicans were allowed to take charge from there. At the same time we also had our scoring chances but we failed to take them. You’ll pay the price when you don’t take your chances and the other team goes on to make use of what they get. That was only going to make it harder for us especially when you are under pressure playing a team like Mexico on their home ground,” St Clair told TTFF Media after the loss. With T&T carded to face Mexico in two final round matches, St Clair stressed that when that time comes, the scoreline must read different, of course in T&T’s favour. “Definitely the situation has to be a different one in the next stage. We are also growing right now but by then we must be able to take it to a different level. We came into this game knowing that we were almost sure of a place in the next round but I was still saying to the guys that we should finish on a high and let Mexico know more about us in Mexico. Striker Jerren Nixon was unable to play a part as he picked up a thigh strain in training while Cornell Glen and Stern John found chances hard to come by. Glen had T&T ‘s best opportunity just after the game when he collected from the right side and with only the ‘keeper to beat he went for the far post and was off target. John also saw a one time volley dip just wide of the left post while there were other chances that went begging for the visitors with Eve also hitting wide from atop the box. Eve admitted that T&T lost to a better prepared team but both he and goalkeeper Shaka Hislop said that come next round, it’s going to be a different ball game. “I think basically we were beaten tonight by a team that was better prepared than us,” Eve told TTFF Media. “Mexico are rated among to the top ten teams in the world and we have to accept that we are not at their level just yet. We were not totally outplayed and we did have good possession at points in the game as we did in Trinidad but unfortunately we didn’t take our chances and by this we ended up putting more pressure on ourselves.

LINEUP
1.	Neil Hislop
4.	Marvin Andrews
3.	Ian Cox
16.	Dennis Lawrence
	80' Silvio Spann
5.	Brent Sancho
7.	Andre Boucaud
	67' Densill Theobald
8.	Angus Eve (capt.)
10.	Brent Rahim
13.	Cornell Glen
	76' Errol McFarlane
14.	Stern John
19.	Kenwyne Jones
SUBSTITUTES
18.	Silvio Spann
15.	Densill Theobald
9.	Errol McFarlane
21.	Daurance Williams
6.	Derek King
2.	Keyeno Thomas
11.	Jerren Nixon
COACH
	Bertille St. Clair
SUBSTITUTIONS
67'	Densill Theobald for Andre Boucaud
76'	Errol McFarlane for Cornell Glen
80'	Silvio Spann for Dennis Lawrence