For­mer na­tion­al cap­tain and strik­er, Ken­wyne Jones, thought Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball coach Dwight Yorke’s ap­proach to the World Cup Qual­i­fy­ing match against Ja­maica was too "safe". Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia Sports mo­ments af­ter the 1-1 draw at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain, the for­mer na­tion­al men's team play­er said Yorke's side could have used a more at­tack­ing ap­proach.

​“I think we start­ed the game a bit too cau­tious­ly, and we didn't put the pres­sure on Ja­maica,” Jones said.

The for­mer St An­tho­ny’s play­er added, “You can tell from the get go Ja­maica was play­ing, just one draw, and hop­ing to spawn the counter-at­tack like they did, just like they did in Ja­maica rel­a­tive­ly, and to not come out and start the game in the way that we should, putting pres­sure in the team whether by just our en­er­gy, or even the se­lec­tion, but I’m a bit dis­ap­point­ed.”

​Jones, who scored 23 goals for the na­tion­al team be­tween 2003 and 2017, shared what he ex­pects to see from the home team on Tues­day against cel­lar-placed Bermu­da at the same venue.

​“Well, I ex­pect the play­ers to be pro­fes­sion­al and come out and win the game. At the end of the day, we may not be able to qual­i­fy, but we don't want to fin­ish off the qual­i­fi­ca­tion with a loss. We are play­ing against a team that didn't win any games for the en­tire pe­ri­od. So we have to come out and do our best, and be pro­fes­sion­al about it.”

​For­mer na­tion­al net­ball cap­tain Ani­ka La Roche pledged her sup­port on Tues­day de­spite the team hav­ing no chance of book­ing a tick­et to the World Cup.

​“I have been a na­tion­al ath­lete for most of my life. And I know how it is to need the sup­port of the peo­ple, re­gard­less of the out­come,” La Roche not­ed.

​“So, for me, I will come out and sup­port the coun­try. It is not ‘come out and sup­port the win­ner’. It is not ‘come out and sup­port the qual­i­fi­er’. It is ‘come out and sup­port the coun­try’. These guys have been putting in the work.”

De­spite the draw, La Roche thought the team played well.

“Col­lec­tive­ly, we had a very good game.. But, I must say that I am very much pleased with the per­for­mance.”

For­mer na­tion­al coach and founder of the Cale­do­nia AIA foot­ball team, Ja­maal Shabazz, was pleased with the per­for­mance by the Dwight Yorke-led squad.

He said, “I felt that we played very well, es­pe­cial­ly be­cause there were lots of chances to put it that way. But I saw a well-or­gan­ised group of peo­ple.”

Shabazz, now work­ing with the Guyana Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion, wants the team to con­tin­ue build­ing on the work they did and sent en­cour­ag­ing words to the team. “Rise up, we didn’t have a bad game, it’s not the end of the world,” Shabazz said.

Trinidad and To­ba­go will play their fi­nal World Cup Qual­i­fi­er on Tues­day against Bermu­da, what is now vir­tu­al­ly a ‘friend­ly’ for both teams as they can­not move for­ward to the World Cup in USA-Mex­i­co-Cana­da or the In­ter­con­ti­nen­tal Play off tour­na­ment in May to qual­i­fy the fi­nal two teams to the show­piece event.

Con­ca­caf Group B stand­ings

Pl*Team*P*W*D*L*GD*Pts

1*Cu­ra­cao*5*3*2*0*10*11

2*Ja­maica* 5*3*1*1*8*10

3*T&T*5*1*3*1*1*6

4*Bermu­da* 5*0*0*5*-19*0