"I thought we were much improved from the game against Peru," said coach Stephen Hart following T&T's 3-1 loss to Uruguay on Friday night.
T&T stunned the number 9th ranked team in the world with a sixth minute opening goal from midfielder Jomal Williams but it turned out to be their only celebratory moment of the visitors as the host forced themselves back into the contest to during their International Friendly at the Estadio Centenario in Montevideo.
Playing before just about 10,000 fans, T&T surged ahead in the 7th when the DirecTV W Connection attacking duo of Shahdon Winchester and Williams combined for a nicely orchestrated goal. Winchester challenged for a high ball that was played forward for T&T and he got it at its feet before looking up and laying off on his right for an onrushing Williams to clinically sidefoot past Martin Silva for a 1-0 lead.
The early goal settled T&T as Uruguay were left trying to regroup from the unexpected setback.But even in the absence of injured Barcelona forward Luis Suarez, the hosts began to find their rhythm and struck back through Paris St Germain striker Edinson Cavani who tied the scores with a 26th minute penalty.
Stephen Hart started with Andre Boucaud, Levi Garcia, Khaleem Hyland and Williams in the middle along with Winchester and debutant Nathan Lewis. The defence comprises of Daneil Cyrus, Triston Hodge, Aubrey David and Weslie John with Marvin Phillip in goal. The players coming into the line up from the 4-0 loss to Peru, seemed to be signaling from early that they had every intention of showing their worth at the historic venue which was built for the staging of the first ever World Cup in 1930.
Three minutes from half-time however, with defender Tristan Hodge receiving treatment on the sideline, Cavani punished the T&T defense for failing to clear and he shot past a hapless Marvin Phillip from inside the penalty box. The brace for Cavani moved above Hector Scarone into third in the all-time scorers list for Uruguay with 32 goals from 81 appearances.
Fiorentina midfielder Matias Vecino pushed Uruguay 3-1 ahead in the 61st minute as the hometeam found themselves in the driver's seat from that point. T&T had some good moments after that but couldn't break the Uruguay backline from there on.
Following the match Hart said: "I thought we were much improved from the game against Peru. We at times possessed the ball well, we recovered it well, we defended as we know you would have to when being away from home against one of the best teams in the world. We could have gotten a little more out of the game if we could have played a bit faster and moved the ball forward a little bit faster."
He added: "Those were the aspects of the performance which was for me the most important thing. There are a few of course we know we have to correct but overall there were some good individual and collective performances.,"
The Soca Warriors coach said: "I was really impressed with the ball speed of Uruguay and their pressing was impressive. They can play one touch out of the air for two or three passes and they have very dynamic movement off the ball. The reason they can play that way is because of the environment they play in. They only had two players form the local league here. Everyone else is playing in foreign leagues and those leagues demand that you play at a particular speed."
Meanwhile, defender Hodge of DirecTV W Connection had to be taken to hospital during the match. Team Doctor Terence Babwah stated that the player suffered a cerebral concussion and underwent a CT scan at hospital.
He was later discharged and rejoined the rest of the squad at the team's hotel. Babwah said the player was experiencing headaches and dizziness and would be monitored over the next twenty-four hours.The T&T team will now head to Qin Huang Dao for their next International Friendly against China on June 3.