T&T Soca Warriors suffered the first defeat in six outings on home turf under coach Stephen Hart after a 1�0 loss to 2013 Gold Cup finalist Panama in a international friendly at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva on Friday night.
However, the final scoreline was not a true reflection of the match as the more robust Central Americans, who had previously failed to register a win in T&T, dominated for most of the contest against a youthful Soca Warriors line-up which featured only four overseas players in Khaleem Hyland, Sheldon Bateau, Kevin Molino and Justin Hoyte, all of whom started.
Others included in the team were Under-20 duo Neveal Hackshaw and Shannon Gomez, along with fellow debutant Tyrone Charles, Willis Plaza, Mikeil Williams, Ataulla Guerra, and goalkeeper Marvin Phillip as the T&T team went in search of a winning start this season after ending last year with a penalty-kicks loss to host Jamaica in the Caribbean Football Union Cup Final in November.
Panama, on the other hand, brought a full-strength squad with just four home-based players although their top two forwards, Blas Perez of FC Dallas and Luis Tejada of Peruvian club Juan Aurich, were unused substitutes.
From early on they took control of the encounter, bossing possession with slick movement on and off the ball, which eventually led to the opening goal in the 16th off a header by captain Roman Torres, who was first to the ball ahead of rookie right back, Gomez.
This after Panama's Ricardo Buitrago eluded T&T left-back Justin Hoyte with relative ease inside the 18-yard area and whipped the ball across the goal.
Five minutes later, Buitrago was again involved for Panama as she put through Rolando Escobar who centred for Rolando Blackburn, but his one-time effort was kept out by a brilliant reflex left-handed save by Phillip on his goal-line to keep T&T in the contest.
The Panamanians continued to control the flow of the match, with T&T only seeing brief periods of possession, and just before the half, it looked as though the frustration got to Hyland, who was involved in a midfield tussle with Escobar, but luckily for both players, referee Sherwin Moore issued no cards.
On the resumption, the Soca Warriors started brighter with Plaza connecting on a long ball over the top from Bateau, but his one-time half-volley under pressure from Torres was straight at goalkeeper Jaime Penedo.
At the other end of the field, Phillip again came up trumps for his teams in the 67th minute, diving full length to his left to keep out a header by Blackburn off a right sided Escobar corner, while two-minutes later, the latter smashed a right-footer off the T&T cross-bar with Phillip beaten as his team looked for a second.
Undoubtedly, the player of the match for T&T, Phillip made another point-blank save in the 75th minute, this time with his legs to keep out a rampaging Blackburn after he eased past substitute Jamal Jack on the left side.
With a slight drizzle now soaking the players, T&T came to life mainly through the introduction of Duane James (71st), Jomal Williams (76th) and Marcus Joseph (82nd) and created a few late chances through an out-of-sync Guerra and from dead-ball situations, however they all failed to trouble Penedo as his team held on for the deserved win, its first on T&T soil.