T&T U-14s fall short in CFU Challenge Series semis
T&T Under-14 footballers came up short in their bid to contest Sunday’s Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Under-14 Boys Challenge Series Tier I final against Jamaica after a 4-3 loss to French Guiana in their semifinal at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, Tobago on Friday night.
With Jamaica rallying for a 3-1 win over Puerto Rico after trailing at the half, the Densill Theobald-coached T&T boys were eager to book a place in the final to have a chance at avenging a 2-0 round-robin Group A loss to the young ‘Reggae Boyz’.
However, it was French Guiana, who topped their Group B round-robin series involving Puerto Rico, Curacao and St Martin without losing a match for seven points who came out of the blocks flying against a nervous T&T and went ahead as early as the eight minutes when Matheo Francois took advantage off a wayward pass from T&T’s Reagan Rowe to fire home past goalkeeper Christian Telfer on his near post from inside the 18-yard box despite surrounded by three T&T players.
Three minutes later, Rowe would make amends though as his flighted right-sided cross from the bye line was chested down by Jeremai Nanton who then hammered home a left-footed volleyball back across goal and into the far corner of the net past goalkeeper Hugo Sante for a 1-1 score.
T&T’s joy was short-lived though as French Guiana reclaimed the lead within two minutes when the diminutive Tyler Hartimo found some space outside the 18-yard box, eluded defender Deron Blackman and unleashed a dipping left-footed blast that caught Telfer off his line and into the back of the net for a 2-1 advantage.
The lead soon expanded to 3-1 in the 19th minute via fortuitous circumstances for French Guiana when an intended clearance from a corner by T&T’s Kenia Richardson ricocheted off French Guiana captain Enzo Cherica and into the T&T goal.
Four minutes before the half-time interval it went from bad to worse for the host with Guezo Atoukou curling in a left-footed free-kick over a four-man wall and into the far corner past the desperate dive of Telfer after Richardson was whistled for a foul on Bahuan Cleovil.
In the second half, T&T stepped up their defensive effort but at the end of the field, they were still finding the going tough as well until substitute Darnell Walcott’s right-sided cross was met with a right-footed first-post finish by fellow substitute Adasa Richardson following a one-two between both players to reduce the margin to 4-2 with 11 minutes left in the 70-minute match.
Jahmiah Gibbs then handed T&T a lifeline when he was on spot to stab home a rebound from less than six yards out after Sante spilled a left-sided cross from Sebastian James to make the score 4-3.
Walcott then missed out on a golden chance to get T&T on level terms in stoppage time when he failed to collect a long clearance up field from teammate Essie Thomas with the French Guiana defence no where to be found.
And then from a left-sided corner, Thomas was denied by a low save from Sante from about three yards out, as the T&T boys came up short in the end.
Speaking after the loss, Theobald said he was very disappointed, especially with the first-half performance of his players.
“I thought we give everything second half to come back into the game, but the damage was already done in the first half.”
The T&T coach added, “The trust we put in a lot of the players also never materialised and we were a bit too inconsistent as well throughout the tournament.”
Looking ahead, Theobald said, “We are still grateful for the tournament and the exposure given to the players and being able to test themselves against CFU rivals, which will help their development and growth.”
Earlier in the first semifinal, Kelvin DJ Brown scored two second-half goals to lead Jamaica to a come-from-behind 3-1 defeat of Puerto Rico.
The Puerto Ricans went into the half-time interval of the 70-minute match 1-0 ahead after Wilfredo Reyes Rivera converted a penalty kick in the 34th minute after a foul by goalkeeper Marcodean Spence on Fabian Salls Diaz.
However, in the second half, Brown got Jamaica on level terms with a long-distance effort that slipped under goalkeeper Martin Perez Colon in the 52nd minute, while Kyle Hussey netted the go-ahead item in the 59th, followed by Brown’s second item on the stroke of full time to book their spot in today’s final at 6.30 pm at the same venue against French Guiana.
Barbados, Bermuda clash in Tier II decider
Before the Tier I final at Bacolet, unbeaten Barbados and Bermuda, both on five-match winning streaks will meet in their Tier II final at Bacolet from 2.30 pm
This after both teams won their semifinal match-ups at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on Friday with relative ease.
In the opener, Barbados, winner of its round-robin Group A with a maximum of 12 points from four matches, blanked Turks and Caicos, who topped Group B with ten points, 3-0.
Following a 0-0 first 35 minutes, Barbados got second-half items from Amari Small in the 47th, Trey Barker in the 53rd and Maleek Peters in the 62nd.
The Bermudans who topped Group C with a maximum of 12 points as well got off to a quick start in their 5-0 semifinal defeat of Anguilla led by a hat-trick from Jeon Wolfe in the eighth, 21st and 37th minutes while Z’Ani Jennings netted a double in the sixth and 26th, and Chaz Edmead, the other from the penalty spot in the 68th.
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