PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Head coach, Stephen Hart, has lamented Trinidad and Tobago’s lack of ruthlessness, following their dramatic 2-2 draw with Guatemala in the CONCACAF fourth round of 2018 World Cup qualifiers here Friday.
The hosts fell behind at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, but hit back twice to lead 2-1 before conceding a goal towards the end of the topsy-turvy Group C contest.
Hart said his side had been tentative and had “played with a lot of nerves”, allowing Guatemala to steal a point from the encounter.
“I thought we were sloppy, it’s almost like we didn’t want the ball and we didn’t move it effectively,” he told a media conference afterwards.
“I tried to pin back Guatemala by bringing on attacking players … and we should have killed off the game. We had some chances to kill off the game.
“[Goalkeeper] Marvin (Phillips) made two fantastic saves to keep us in the game and unfortunately Guatemala scored and we should have handled it better … we should have kept the ball more effectively.”
The visitors led on 36 minutes through Carlos Ruiz before Joevin Jones equalized in stoppage time with the first of his goals, a firm, low drive past goalkeeper Paolo Motta.
Jones, who plays for MLS side Seattle Sounders, completed his brace in the 62nd minute when he finished well from the left side of the box but Ruiz claimed a share of the honours three minutes from the end when he tucked home a rebound Marco Pappa’s initial shot.
Hart said the half-time team talk had been important in correcting deficiencies in the approach by the Soca Warriors. “We talked about a couple of things. We talked about the wide players not doing their defensive duty and the central midfielders getting stretched and because of that Guatemala were getting space between the lines,” he explained.
“We also talked about utilizing our counter-attacks more knowing they had to come forward … I think the biggest discussion we had was [about] our lack of urgency. Sometimes when you tell your body let’s go, your mind can say whatever it wants, and we lacked that … impetus and urgency.”
He added: “I thought the way we opened the game was extremely positive, we moved the ball very well. We got into two very good positions and we sort of failed to take the opportunity.
“After that point the game was fairly evenly balanced and then Guatemala scored a goal on the back post which I was a little bit disappointed in. Because most of what we worked on as a team was the sort of runs they made coming in on the back post and us being aware of it.”
With the point, T&T moved to 11 points and secured qualification for the final round of qualifiers. They face the second placed United States in Jacksonville tomorrow in their final game of the group.
