Coach Shawn Cooper's charges will need a massive win today against host nation Haiti in the third and final CFU Under-17 Championship Group B match, in order to stand a chance of topping the group and earning a spot in the final. The primary objective, however, will be for the T&T team to finish within the top two teams in the group, which will assure qualification for the 2015 Concacaf U-17 Championship.
The top two teams in Group A and B will qualify for Concacaf's main event, as will the best third-place team from the two groups.
However, there will be no semifinals to contest at this event. The winners of each group will meet in the final on Sunday, following the third-place playoff, featuring the two runners-up.
Haiti currently leads the group with a maximum six points from two wins, while St Lucia and T&T both trail in second and third, respectively, with three points from one win and a loss.
Despite an inferior goal differencial, St Lucia has the edge over T&T having the head-to-head advantage. St Lucia defeated T&T 2-0 on Sunday in the first Group B match, before T&T bounced back on Tuesday night with a 3-0 win over Barbados.
Anthony Herbert scored in the 19th minute for T&T, before Tekay Hoyce and Dareem Daniel added one each in the second half to seal the win. "They knew they had to dig deep because of that loss on the opening day. We regrouped and the boys went out there and executed well tonight," said Cooper after the match.
"There is still room for us to improve our play but the confidence is back and I think we can expect a really good contest against the hosts Haiti on Thursday (today)," he added. Haiti, meanwhile, secured a 2-0 win over Barbados, and a 6-1 whipping of St Lucia on Tuesday, to head into the final group match as the heavy favourite. If three teams finish with the same number of points, the advancing teams will be determined by goal-difference. If two teams finish on the same number of points, they will be separated on a head-to-head basis.
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Group A Results
Tuesday
T&T 3 (Anthony Herbert 19th, Tekay Hoyce 50th, Dareem Daniel 77th) v Barbados 0
Haiti 6 (Johnson Jeudy 17th, Ronaldo Damus 31st, Bicou Bissainthe 45th, Jude Maitre 49th, 64th, 83rd) v St Lucia 1 (Noah Nicholas 61st) Today's Group A fixtures
Barbados v St Lucia, Stade Sylvio Cator, Port-au-Prince, 5 pm
Hiati v T&T, Stade Sylvio Cator, 7.30 pm
Standings
Teams Pld W D L F A Pts
Haiti 2 2 0 0 8 1 6
St Lucia 2 1 0 1 3 6 3
T&T 2 1 0 1 3 2 3
Barbados 2 0 0 2 0 5 0