T&T’s Soca Warriors just missed out on a spot in the quarterfinal round of the Concacaf Gold Cup Sunday night (June 22) when they were held to a 1-1 tie by Saudi Arabia in an enthralling contest at the Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, USA.
Chasing a 10-year period in which T&T failed to come out of the group stage, the Warriors needed to win the match and hope that the United States prevented a victory for Haiti in another contest that was played simultaneously. But while the Haitians were beaten 2-1 at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, the Soca Warriors let it slip after leading for most of the match.
Facing criticisms that their players went partying amid the Gold Cup campaign, coach Dwight Yorke’s men drew first blood. New-found striker Dante Sealy scored one of the best goals of the tournament to push T&T ahead 1-0 in the 10th minute.
Sealy picked up the ball on the wide right, where no danger seemed possible. But then he cut inside on his favourite left foot and struck a thunderous shot that sailed into the top right corner of goalkeeper Nawaf Alaqidi’s goal.
A minute later, Saudi Arabia missed a golden opportunity at the equaliser. With T&T still, in a celebratory mood, Feras Albrikan failed to direct his header on target when the unmarked Abdulrahman Alobud picked him out perfectly with a lifted ball in the 11th minute.
Alobud’s downward header bounced on the ground before over the crossbar.
The Saudis who beat Haiti 1-0 but were held off by the Americans by the same scoreline, needed just a draw to advance as the second-place team in the group, and although they enjoyed much of the possession in the early moments, they failed to trouble Marvin Phillip in the T&T goal for the most part.
T&T’s focus on their defensive structure looked good for the first time in the tournament, and when they transitioned to attack, they looked even stronger, for which they should have been rewarded in the 15th minute. Sealy, the scorer of the first goal then turned provider, when he switched the ball from right to left where Kevin Molino picked up before quickly lifting it over to the onrushing Levi Garcia to connect one-time with his unfavoured right foot, but the Alaqidi went low quickly to push it wide and maintain the 1-0 scoreline.
The Saudis enjoyed the better of the possession, but it was coach Yorke who went to the halftime interval ahead for the first time, 1-0.
Upon the return from the break, the Saudis settled quickly and may feel that they should have scored when Saud Abdulhamid broke the T&T offside trap on the far left from a long ball in the 52nd minute. Abdulhamid, with only Marvin Phillip in front of him in the penalty area, somehow pushed the ball wide.
But they would not be denied. The Saudis were later rewarded for their persistence in the 59th minute after Feras Albrikan, who had been unusually quiet all night, drove in from right to centre with the ball and slipped it inside the T&T penalty area for Alshehri to hit a powerful shot that Phillip pushed on to the crossbar.
And in the mad scramble to get the ball away, it rolled invitingly for Albrikan to steer the ball into the empty T&T net for the equaliser 1-1.
This was followed by a period of sustained Saudi dominance in which stout T&T defending, coupled with luck, saved the Soca Warriors. In the 71st minute, Abdulrahim Alobud curled the ball onto Phillip’s crossbar with the T&T custodian beaten. And as the T&T defence struggled to get the ball out of their danger area, Alobud then hit the ball toward an empty T&T goal, only for Justin Garcia to clear it off the goalline.
Garcia, who came in as a replacement for the injured Sheldon Bateau, had a chance to rescue T&T in time added on, but after a ball was threaded to him inside the Saudi penalty area, Garcia hit the ball off the cross with only the goalie to beat.
The result meant the Saudis advanced to the quarterfinals as the second-place team in the group.
Teams
T&T: 1 Marvin Phillip, 5 Justin Garcia, 6 Andre Raymond, 8 Daniel Phillips, 10 Kevin Molino, 11 Levi Garcia, 15 Dante Sealy, 16 Alvin Jones, 17 Rio Cardines, 18 Andre Rampersad, 20 Real Gill
Subs: 21 Jabari St Hillaire, 22 Denzil Smith, 2 Darnell Hospedales, 3 Joevin Jones, 7 Steffen Yeates, 9 Nathaniel James, 12 Isaiah Leacock, 19 Ajani Fortune, 23 Noah Powder, 24 Isaiah Garcia, 26 Isaiah Lee
SAUDI ARABIA: 1 Nawaf Alaqidi (GK), 4 Abdulelah Alamri, 5 Abdullah Madu, 7 Mukhtar Sheik, 9 Feras Albrikan, 11 Saleh Alshehri (capt), 12 Saud Abdulhamid, 15 Aiman Ahmed, 16 Ziyad Aljohani, 24 Abdulrahman Alobud
Subs: 21 Abdulrahman Alsanbi (GK), 22 Ahmed Alkassar, 2 Muhannad Alshanqiti, 6 Ali Alhassan, 8 Marwan Alsahafi, 10 Faisal Alghamdi, 13 Nawaf Bu Washi, 17 Mohammed Bakor, 19 Turki Alammar, 20 Abdullah Al Salem, 23 Ali Alasmari, 25 Hammam Al Hammami
WARRIORS
LET IT SLIP