HOUSTON, Texas, CMC – Grenada suffered their second straight 4-0 drubbing of the CONCACAF Gold Cup in another chastening defeat, this time to Asian champions Qatar here Saturday night.
After losing their opening Group D game to Honduras by the same margin last Tuesday, Grenada conceded three first half goals to find themselves out of contention from early in the contest at the BBVA Stadium.
Abdelaziz Hatim opened the scoring in the 11th minute before Akram Afif doubled his side’s tally in the 22nd and Mohammed Muntari added the third in the 36th minute.
Al Moez netted a fourth immediately after the break to put the game well out of sight.
“We’re obviously disappointed. We had sections of the game but we definitely had issues dealing with the movement and secondary movement, and changing the points of attack and their movement of the ball,” said Grenada head coach Michael Findlay.
“It was a questionable first goal. We had to rebound from that and we went in at half-time, assessed the situation and had to reload, so to speak, and unfortunately we lost an early goal in the second half which was very disappointing.
“We recovered from that and made our best efforts to get back into the game. I feel for the players once again because I believe their application was excellent.”
Goalkeeper Jason Belfon went down after clashing with Abdelaziz Hatim who went aerial for a header, and then tapped in the loose ball with Grenada appealing in vain for a foul.
Jacob Berkeley-Agyepong then poked wide at the other end in the 18th minute before Akram Afif extended Qatar’s lead by curling home from 20 yards.
Muntari headed in Akram Afif’s corner from close range at the near post before captain Aaron Pierre failed to make a regulation interception in the box from a right-sided cross, leaving Al Moez with a straightforward tap-in in the first minute after the break.
Grenada’s final game is against Panama on Tuesday.
In the other Group D fixture, Honduras scored two goals in the space of five minutes through Alexander López (61st) and Romell Quioto (65th) as they rebounded from 2-1 down at half-time to beat Panama 3-2.
