We could have been discomforted by the cold weather or even by the over-enthusiastic crowd but the plain truth was that our young players were offered free lessons of playing as a team. Mexico was not prepared to just win their opening match, but more so to send a strong message to Honduras and Panama as to what they can expect. In hindsight, the heavy 7-1 result in favour of the Mexicans was just reward for their superior quality of play. Never did they give up on the method which they have always maintained when they are in control. After rallying for 28 minutes under serious pressure from their more advanced opponents, T&T wilted under pressure and succumbed to two goals in some four minutes, the latter being a gem of a shot from star striker Marco Fabian whose eventual hat-trick will have opened the eyes of the Football loving world. Not only did he finish extremely well, his mobility and creativity when he was in the vicinity of the opponent's penalty area must be seen in the future as another talented Mexican who would shake the Concacaf area with his recognisable joy when scoring and creating goals.
It seemed as though the Angus Eve trained squad had regrouped with the last 12 minutes of the first half, and forced Mexico into a more defensive mode. The absence of diligence towards the collective process of a team with such talent needs to be addressed. Failure to string passes together was accentuated by the extra touch of the ball by each player before releasing it to teammates. The Mexicans, through their creative midfielders Cabrera, Herrera, and Aquino, were responsible for the chemistry which won their team two goals and 13 corners in the first half. The Red force decided to consolidate in defence in the early stages by retreating towards their own goal with all but Jamaal Gay, a type of strategy which drew some calculated forms of attack from Marco Fabian, Alan Pulido, and Miguel Ponce. The result of that pattern of play was turned into an attempt to produce a stonewall defence without even offering themselves the opportunity of a counterattack. What originally appeared to be a solid defence-line, was changed into little or not opportunity to retaliate with quick breaks towards the Mexico's goal. The final 20 minutes saw four goals being scored, none of which came from high profiled astute tactics. Keeper Marchan seemed to have been short on communication skills with his defenders, which turned what looked like ill directed crosses, into goal chances, four of which resulted in subsequent goals.
Searching for a new philosophy may not have been necessary from their original approach, except that the implementation of using the ball effectively when they regained possession. The second half appeared to have brought some adjustments for a few minutes, despite the early goal scored by Fabian in the 51st minute. The decision to go for long passes to the solitary striker Gay, had no degree of success at any stage of the encounter, as there were few supporting players to accept the "lay off" passes from the tall striker, whose post up play was creating some problems for the clustered Mexican defence. The cohesion among two central defenders was short of tactical structure and oftentimes the quick diagonal movements by Fabian and Pulido caused havoc in front of Marchand, the keeper. Unfortunately, Kevan George found the concept of playing the defensive midfielder to be a task which needed quick communication among the trio in the central defense, something which time and regular practice will cure. When the Mexicans realised that Molino, Jayson Joseph were actually making inroads into their half of the field and appearing to be gaining some ascendency, they readily made some substitutions which brought Xavier Cortes and Jorge Enrique to relieve the livewire midfielders Herrera and Cabrera. The potency of the Mexicans actually became more efficient and accelerated towards a speed level for which there was little containment by the T&T defence-line. There were however moments in each half when the combination moves orchestrated by Molino, Gay and Joseph appeared comparable to their opponents, but they could not retain their efforts and subsequently resorted to some individuality which had no degree of success. However, the Mexico challenge was too much for T&T in the same manner that it will be for their other opponents Honduras and Panama. This means that T&T must pick up the quality of their game in order to earn the positive results which they need for success. It is possible, especially after witnessing the first match between these two teams. They are good teams but not exactly in the same ball park with Mexico. Better days could be ahead for Angus Eve and his team.
