Trinidad and To­ba­go So­ca War­riors will com­pete in League B of the Con­ca­caf Na­tions League next year af­ter a 1-1 draw against 2026 FI­FA World Cup debu­tants Cu­ra­cao at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo, on Sun­day night.

Need­ing a win to have any chance of avoid­ing be­ing de­mot­ed back to League B for the first time since 2023, the So­ca War­riors mi­nus no few­er than 13 reg­u­lars due to in­jury or sus­pen­sion, in­clud­ing team cap­tain Levi Gar­cia, Rio Car­dines and Daniel Phillips, gave a spir­it­ed dis­play against Cu­ra­cao, but in the end coach Derek King’s men came up short in their bid to main­tain their League A sta­tus.

With the draw, T&T end­ed with one point from four match­es in the six-team group, one more than Nicar­gua, who came up against the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic in the last match, with the lat­ter need­ing a win to have any chance of a top-two fin­ish and a spot in the Con­ca­caf Na­tions League quar­ter­fi­nals as well as the Con­ca­caf Gold Cup.

Watched by a crowd of less than 1,000 spec­ta­tors, T&T start­ed slow­ly but had the re­al first chance of a goal through winger Kai­him Thomas af­ter he was put through on goal by Wayne Fred­er­ick II.

How­ev­er, with goal­keep­er Eloy Room rac­ing off his line to close down the an­gle, Thomas dragged his right-foot­ed scopp efoort wide of the far post.

Six min­utes be­fore the in­ter­val, Fred­er­ick II again split the Cu­ra­cao de­fence with a clever through ball, and this time, Club San­do mid­field­er Luke Phillipheld off his ar­mour­er and fired through the legs of Room for a 1-0 lead which the host took in­to the in­ter­val.

In the sec­ond half, both teams took a while to set­tle, but in the 61st minute, T&T mid­field­er Mo­lik Khan was robbed of pos­ses­sion af­ter some poor ball con­trol, and Jun­in­ho Ba­cu­na made the host pay, when his low right-foot­ed dri­ve across the T&T goal­mouth was met by a slid­ing Jort­di Pauli­na for the vis­i­tors to draw lev­el.

Ten min­utes lat­er Fred­er­ick II al­most re­gained the lead for T&T when he weaved his way around three tack­les at the top of the 18-yard box be­fore cut­ting in­side an­oth­er chal­lenge and un­leash­ing a left-foot­ed blast which de­flect­ed off a Cu­ra­cao de­fend­er and over the bar for a cor­ner.

With the min­utes tick­ing away, T&T pressed for­ward in search of the go-ahead goal, but poor fin­ish­ing from sub­sti­tute Re­on Moore, to­geth­er with a lack of com­po­sure in front of goal from Re­al Gill and Sher­vohnez Hamil­ton, saw the chances go abeg­ging.

In the end, the So­ca War­riors came up short in their ef­fort to get the win, as their win­less streak ex­tend­ed to 12 match­es, with their last win com­ing via a 3-0 score­line over Bermu­da on Oc­to­ber 19, 2025.

With the point earned, Cu­ra­cao moved to ten points from their four match­es at the top of the stand­ings, one more than Haiti, who faced off with

Cos­ta Ri­ca at the Es­ta­dio Ri­car­do Sapris­sa, San Jose, Cos­ta Ri­ca, last night, while the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, third with six points, met Nicaragua at the Es­ta­dio Na­cional, Man­agua, Nicaragua.

De­spite be­ing de­mot­ed to League B, T&T still has a chance of qual­i­fy­ing for the 2027 Gold Cup, as the four rel­e­gat­ed League A teams will join four teams from League C in an eight-team play-in round next month, with the four win­ners ad­vanc­ing to the Gold Cup pre­lim­i­nary round.

TEAMS

T&T: 22. Den­zil Smith (GK), 3. Ko­bi Hen­ry, 4. Ja­heim Joseph (12. Sher­vohnez Hamil­ton 84th), 6. Kai­him Thomas, 7. Ryan Telfer, 8. Luke Phillip, 9. Daniel David (5. Ne­veal Hack­shaw 84th), 10. Mo­lik Khan (20. Re­al Gill 68th) 14. Wayne Fred­er­ck II, 16. Michel Poon Angeron (13. Re­on Moore 75th), 18. An­dre Ram­per­sad

Subs not used: 1. Jabari Brice, 21. Ja­heim Wick­ham, 17. Justin Gar­cia,

Cu­ra­cao:: 1. Eloy Room (GK), 2. Shu­randy Sam­bo (20. Joshua Brenet 78th), 3. Ju­rien Gaari, 4. Ju­rich Car­oli­na, 5. Sher­el Flo­ranus, 7. Jun­in­ho Ba­cu­na, 8. Li­vano Come­nen­cia (11. Je­re­my An­tonisse 59th), 10. Le­an­dro Ba­cu­na, 14. Ken­ji Gorre (15. Ar­jany Martha 79th), 16. Jearl Ma­g­a­ritha, 19. Jor­di Pauli­na (9. Ju­r­gen Lo­ca­dia, 79th)

Subs not used: 22. Tyrick Bo­dak (GK), 23. Kiyani Zeggen (GK), 6. 0Nicky Souren, 12. Kyano Pen­so, 17. Tyrese Noslin, 18. Aman­do Obis­po, 21. Tahith Chong.

Lat­est League A Group A stand­ings

Teams*P*W*D*L*F*A*Pts

Cu­ra­cao*4*3*1*0*12*5*10

Haiti*3*3*0*0*9*3*9

Dom Rep*3*2*0*1*6*7*6

Cos­ta Ri­ca*3*1*0*2*6*6*3

T&T*4*0*1*3*4*7*1

Nicaragua*3*0*0*3*3*12*0