Two goals from striker Larry Noel in the 19th and 36th and a masterful performance from England-based Rio Cardines and Michael Chaves assured T&T's Under-20 team a comfortable 5-0 victory over Dominica Sunday night in Group D of the Concacaf U-20 World Cup Qualifiers at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain.
Chaves, the scorer of the winning goal in their opening match against St Vincent and the Grenadines found himself at the end of an early T&T build-up inside the Dominica goal area, and though pressured by defenders, the Fatima College midfielder made room for himself before hitting past goalkeeper Ronny Lockart for the opener in the third minute.
The young "Soca Warriors", needing to win the encounter for a chance to face Canada in their final match on Tuesday, for a chance to progress as the group winner produced a much-improved performance from their opening game, as coach Brian Haynes made four changes to his team, replacing Lindell Sween, Derrel Garcia, Levi Jones and Russell Francois with Chaves, J'lon Matthews, Josiah Ochoa and Akil Henry.
T&T might have had another goal in the sixth minute when Rio Cardines picked out Noel with a right-side centre, however, the latter could not direct his attempt on goal.
Noel, Chaves and Cardines led a deadly attack for the young Warriors from the start and when they combined again in the 19th minute, T&T got their second item of the match. Cardines, on the right side, tested Lockhart with a powerful low shot that the custodian could only push into the path of Noel to hit into the roof of the net for a 2-0 lead.
Then, Chaves galloped through from a Noel pass for a chance at his second item on the night, but he failed to beat the advancing Lockhart in the 27th minute.
By then, the T&T team had gained control of the match and raced to a 3-0 advantage in the 35th minute when Noel broke the Dominica off-side trap from a long Cardines ball, and he received favour when an advancing Lockhart mistimed the bounce of the ball and it flew over his head, only for Noel to hit the ball into an empty net in the 35th minute.
A minute later, however, Cardines got their fourth of the half when his powerful grounder was kept out by a diving Lockhart. But when it rebounded to him, Cardines made sure by hitting it into the far corner for a 4-0 lead at the halfway stage.
Dominica, beaten 8-0 by the Canadians in their first game, looked a much-improved outfit when the game resumed. In fact, a neat build-up between Tyreese Carbon and Adriel Lawrence almost led to the breakthrough they were hoping for. Lawrence though, after receiving a left-side centre in the 53rd minute, saw his low left-footed shot whisked past Ailan Panton's goal.
Instead, T&T got a golden opportunity to go five goals up as Cardines sent Noel on a one-on-one with the goalkeeper, but Noel was sent flying by the custodian, forcing Honduran referee Jefferson Escobar to point to the penalty spot in the 58th minute.
Noel though saw his kick saved by an outstretched Lockhart.
The Dominicans later came close to their first goal again from a freekick, but Panton pushed wide a curling effort by Ajani Richards in the 76th.
The remainder of the match was entirely dominated by the junior Warriors who got their fifth goal from Garcia in the 81st minute for a comfortable 5-0 victory.
In the earlier match at the same venue, Canada got a hat-trick from Tavio Cuccarelli in the 25th, 54th and 89th minutes and another from Alessandro Biello in the 51st to beat St Vincent and the Grenadines 4-0.
