With a spot in next month's 18th Caribbean Football Union Cup eight-team finals secured in Montego Bay, Jamaica, T&T Soca Warriors will be aiming to finish as group winners when they meet Antigua & Barbuda in their final Group Seven semifinal round match at Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva from 6.15 pm this evening.The Stephen Hart-coached Soca Warriors will enter the match needing only a draw to to top the four-team round-robin group after blanking St Lucia 2-0 on Friday for a second straight win after thumping Dominican Republic 6-1 in their opener on Wednesday at the same venue.Antigua & Barbuda, meanwhile are second on the table with four points after it was held to 0-0 draw by Dominican Republic in Friday's opening match and need a draw to be certain of qualification depending on the outcome of today's opener between Dom Republic (one point) and winless St Lucia from 4 pm.
For Friday's encounter, Hart made a few changes to his starting line-up with Wednesday's hat-trick goalscorer Kevin Molinoand fellow midfielders Hughton Hector and Andre Boucaud as well as centre-back Carlyle Mitchell and goalkeeper Jan-Michael Williams all making way for Yohance Marshall, Kevan George, Alvin Jones, Cordell Cato and Marvin Phillip while England-born defender Justin Hoyte, again missed out due to passport problems.However, it did not seem to offset the Soca Warriors as the locals watched by another disappointing crowd took the lead inside the first five minutes for a second match in a row.This time captain and forward Kenwyne Jones, who scored twice against Dominican Republic, utilised his aerial power to head down a pass into Guerra, who controlled at the edge of the area before curling a perfect right-footer into the far corner off the fingertips of goalkeeper Randy Poleon,St Lucia, captained by 34-year-old former Caledonia AIA defender Sheldon Burton Emmanuel, responded with a neat string of passes in the 11th minute however T&T defender Joevin Jones made a timely stop as Magnum Valcin lined up a shot at Phillip at the edge of the six-yard area.
Six minutes later, speedy Seattle Sounders winger, Cordell Cato almost fired T&T into a 2-0 lead, after weaving his way past two tackles on the left and cutting inside, only to be denied by a diving Poleon, who parried the ball away for a corner.And Poleon was brilliant again three minutes from the break with a point blank to deny Cato after Kenwyne Jones, who lost his footing, failed to make initial contact to a low right side Lester Peltier cross in the middle of the area.Following the break T&T failed to hit the target on two early tries and St Lucia responded with a miss of their own before the 50th minute with Felix flashing an effort across the face of goal from a tight angle.Joevin Jones, T&T's Finland-based utility player had a go at goal in the 57th minute, but his effort went inches wide of Poleon's far upright from the left of the area.
Then a minute later Kenwyne Jones miserable night continued as he headed wide of the St Lucia net from two metres out off a well-placed Peltier cross.St Lucia was then denied by T&T goalkeeper Phillip preserved the "Soca Warriors" who made a pointblank save to keep out Malik St. Prix.Soon after Jones redeemed himself from close range with a header off the underside of the cross-bar after Guerra's effort, from inside the area was not cleared by the St Lucians.The visitors then had another chance through in the 74th minute when Emmanuel pu Felix through on the right side of the 18-yard box, but he fired into the side netting.T&T continued to enjoy most off the ball and Guerra had two further efforts to add to his team's tally but he too failed to find the target, first volleying high over after being put through on goal and then failing to get on the end of a precise right sided centre from substitute Daneil Cyrus'.
Looking ahead to the match today, the former Canada coach said, "Antigua & Barbuda are very organized. They have six or seven players who know what they are doing. We have also seen that they leave the best part of their game for the second period."