“Satisfied” is how national football coach Angus Eve feels about Monday’s 1-0 defeat over the Bahamas in their Group C, League B Concacaf Nations League at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, Port-of-Spain.
Eve, aspiring to be promoted to League A where they can be among the big guns in the region, saw his team rebound from a disappointing 2-1 loss to Nicaragua on Friday night to a 1-0 win over the Bahamians, but still, the team came under fire for the low-scoring result in a match that they had dominated.
Eve whose team moved to second position on the standing in the four-team group said: “The exercise was a good one. When a team is playing away from home this is how they play in international football, the only thing the Bahamas tried to do was to stop us from scoring.
“They rarely showed any ambition, we had most of the play without showing it with the goals that we didn’t get.
“Other than that, I thought the cohesion was better tonight, the play was better, the retention was better, the defensive work was better and I don’t think Marvin (Phillip) had any shots to save, so all in all it was a good result because now we are second in the group.
“You see how they were set up, they had six at the back and three in the midfield, so it was really difficult to break them down. They sat very deep, they didn’t allow us to get behind them without pace, they forced us to play in front of them, most of the time.
“And sometimes when we did get to the flanks, we weren’t clinical enough in the final part of the game.”
The Soca Warriors are on three points from two matches, just a point behind leader Nicaragua who is on four points following a win and a 2-2 tie with St Vincent and the Grenadines on Monday afternoon.
Eve’s men will leave today for their third match against St Vincent and the Grenadines on Friday from 3 pm at the Arnos Vale Stadium and will then return home for another meeting with the Vincentians at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on June 13.
The focus now will be on recovery, with the players having to travel and play in a short time frame.
The winner of the group will advance to League A.
T&T team vs The Bahamas
T&T: 1 Marvin Phillip (GK) (captain), 16 Alvin Jones, 12 Kareem Moses, 2 Aubrey David, 19 Keston Julien, 15 Neveal Hackshaw, 8 Kevon Goddard, 7 Noah Powder, 10 Duane Muckette, 12 Judah Garcia, 11 Levi Garcia.
Substitutes: 21 Denzil Smith (GK), 22 Jabari St Hillaire (GK), 18 Shannon Gomez, 4 Sheldon Bateau, 6 Radanfah Abu Bakr, 3 Jameel Neptune, 23 Leston Paul, 5 Daniel Phillips, 20 Molik Khan, 14 John-Paul Rochford, 17 Reon Moore, 9 Nicholas Dillon.
Head coach: Angus Eve