T&T’s se­nior na­tion­al foot­ballers and Cu­raçao shared the points in an en­thralling goal­less con­test in Group B of the fi­nal round of the World Cup Qual­i­fiers be­fore a sold-out crowd at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo on Fri­day night.

But coach Dwight Yorke’s men would have on­ly them­selves to blame in a con­test that could have end­ed 2-0 eas­i­ly in their favour. They now have to jour­ney to Ja­maica to face the Reg­gae Boyz in their first match on the road next week on Tues­day.

An elec­tric at­mos­phere had been set in sup­port of the match, with per­for­mances from steel­pan gi­ants Rene­gades and vet­er­an so­ca artiste Su­perBlue peak­ing the ex­cite­ment ear­ly on in the out­er part of the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, while in­side, a sold-out crowd played the role of the ex­tra man for a team seem­ing­ly con­fi­dent of a spot at next year’s FI­FA World Cup.

Both teams were ex­pect­ed­ly cagey at the start, but Cu­raçao’s grow­ing con­fi­dence on the ball al­lowed them to en­joy ear­ly pos­ses­sion.

T&T’s Tyrese Spicer was at the cen­tre of T&T’s first re­al chance at goal af­ter be­ing jos­tled to the ground in the 19th minute, not too far from the Cu­raçao penal­ty area. And from the re­sult­ing free kick de­liv­ered by Kevin Moli­no, Spicer’s div­ing head­er was gob­bled up by goal­keep­er Eloy Room.

Twice, Cu­raçao threat­ened to break the T&T lock at the back. First, from a neat build-up down the left flank, where Jearl Ma­g­a­ritha tan­ta­lised Noah Pow­der and com­pa­ny. But this time, he re­leased to an un­marked Je­re­my An­tonisse at the top of the penal­ty area, but his shot sailed over Den­zil Smith’s post.

Less than a minute lat­er, Ma­g­a­ritha was tar­get­ed from an al­most sim­i­lar po­si­tion, but his at­tempt fell com­fort­ably in­to Smith’s arms.

In the 37th minute, Cu­raçao came ag­o­nis­ing­ly close to the open­er. Jun­in­ho Ba­cu­na rushed ahead in­to T&T be­fore slip­ping the ball to an un­marked Ma­g­a­ritha in­side the penal­ty area. How­ev­er, Ma­g­a­ritha’s at­tempt was blocked by a slid­ing Ko­bi Hen­ry, who is one of three de­fend­ers called by na­tion­al coach Dwight Yorke for the fi­nal round of the qual­i­fiers.

Yorke made no changes to the team at the break, but a more de­ter­mined ef­fort al­most hand­ed them the open­er in the 49th minute. Spicer used his speed to get past his mark­er down the left flank, but some­how Sealy could not di­rect his head­er on tar­get when the cross came.

Six min­utes lat­er, Car­dines de­liv­ered a pin­point cor­ner for Moli­no to meet sweet­ly on the head, but de­fend­er Roshon Van Ei­j­ma cleared it to safe­ty with goal­keep­er Room to­tal­ly beat­en.

T&T’s de­ter­mined per­for­mance had been cheered on by a vo­cif­er­ous crowd who were al­most cer­tain of the open­ing goal in the 57th minute when Levi Gar­cia was put through by Daniel Phillip on a one-on-one with Room, but again Room pushed his ef­fort wide, much to the dis­may of the chant­i­ng fans.

With Yorke now an­i­mat­ed on the side­line, urg­ing his play­ers on, the re­sponse came with ex­pect­ed an­tic­i­pa­tion, as Sealy slipped the ball through to the on­rush­ing Spicer in­side the Cu­raçao penal­ty in the 74th minute, on­ly for Room to push wide a thun­der­ous shot from Spicer some­how.

Six min­utes lat­er, Gar­cia elud­ed his mark­er on his way in­side the penal­ty area, on­ly for Cu­raçao cap­tain Le­an­dro Ba­cu­na to de­flect it wide.

With T&T in to­tal con­trol, the vis­i­tors al­most broke the hearts of a na­tion from a buildup down the right flank, where An­tonisse was giv­en room, and he lashed it hard and low, on­ly to brush the side of Smith’s up­right in the 88th minute. With the re­sult, Yorke’s men will have to seek re­demp­tion in their oth­er match­es.

TEAMS

CU­RA­CAO

1 Eloy Room, 2 Shu­randy Sam­bo, 3 Ju­rlen Gaar­ri, 4 Roshon Van Ei­j­ma, 5 Sher­el Flo­ranus, 7 Ju­ni­ho Ba­cu­na, 8 Li­vano Come­nen­cia, 10 Le­an­dro Ba­cu­na, 11 Je­re­my An­tonisse, 16 Jearl Ma­g­a­ritha, 20 Rieched­ly Bazo­er

Subs

22 Le­an­dro Meren­cia, 23 Trevor Doorn­busch, 6 God­fried Roe­mer­a­toe, 9 Ju­r­gen Lo­ca­dia, 12 Joshua Zim­mer­man, 14 Tahith Chong, 15 Ar­jany Martha, 17 Tyrese Noslin, 18 Ju­rich Car­oli­na, 19 Ger­vane Kas­ta­neer, 21 Kevin Fe­l­i­da

T&T TEAM

22 Den­zil Smith, 3 Ko­bi Hen­ry, 5 Josi­ah Trim­ming­ham, 8 Daniel Phillips, 10 Kevin Moli­no, 11 Levi Gar­cia, 13 Tyrese Spicer, 15 Dante Sealy, 18 An­dre Ram­per­sad, 19 Rio Car­dines, 23 Noah Pow­der

Subs

1 Mar­vin Phillip, 21 Jabari St Hillaire, 2 Dar­nell Hospedales, 4 Isa­iah Gar­cia, 6 Jer­rin Jack­ie, 7 Stef­fen Yeates, 9 Nathaniel James, 12 Ryan Telfer, 14 Wayne Fred­er­ick II, 16 Justin Obik­wu, 17 Justin Gar­cia, 20 Kaile Au­vray