T&T snatch 1-1 draw against Honduras
The capacity crowd at the Hasely Crawford Stadium was treated to a last gap 90th minute equalising goal by Kaleem Hyland against Honduras in a 1-1 draw in their first home match of the CONCACAF 2010 World Cup qualifiers. Hyland struck late in the match when the Honduran goalkeeper Noel Vallares fumbled a low shot which barely crossed the goal line sending the thousands of Soca Warrior supporters into pandemonium.
Without its inspirational captain Dwight Yorke and workhorse midfielder Chris Birchall (both out through suspension) the Trinidad & Tobago outfit started slowly against the Central American side. It took about twenty minutes before T&T had any real chance on goal with the captain for the night the lanky defender Dennis Lawrence having his shot blocked from a Carlos Edwards cross.
Stern John and surprising striker Jason Scotland starting instead of Kenwyne Jones had very few chances, either having shots go either wide of the uprights or agonizingly over bar.
Densil Theobald a veteran of the 2006 World Cup side that went to Germany was given Dwight Yorke’s role in the midfield but clearly he was way in over his head when passes were not being put together.
Honduras had a couple of good chances in the first half, Julio De Leon had a shot that went over the cross bar in the 25th minute and he then forced a brilliant finger tip save over the cross bar from T&T goal keeper Jan Michael Williams.
At the start of the second half the Hondurans started attacking and put the ball in the back of the net but the goal was ruled off side. However they did not have long to wait when in the 50th minute of play ‘keeper Williams had a poor attempt to punch away a corner and gave an easy header to Carlos Pavon, the veteran Honduran striker, who made no mistake and put the ball in the back of the net.
With the introduction of inspirational and much revered midfielder Russell Latapy and Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones new life was breathed into the T&T attack but the Hondurans kept them at bay not with stoic defending. Tried as they may T&T could not find a way through.
Time seemed to have run out on them until Hyland’s heroics in the last minute.
Most of the faithful supporters seemed satisfied with the draw but it now means T&T has two points from two games. If T&T wants a top three finish, which would mean automatic qualification to South African, then they must get a positive result in their next game against USA to be played in the USA on Wednesday night.
However if we lose to USA on Wednesday night supporters can take solace in the fact that in the 2006 World Cup qualifying campaign T&T had a mere point after 3 games and still made it to Germany.
Comments
One Response to “T&T snatch 1-1 draw against Honduras”
Good article. Provided more insight than the newspaper articles. I went to the match but between the beers and the gents I didn’t see all those things. If ever you need a commentary from the bleachers let me know.