Two first-time scor­ers for T&T- speedy mid­field­er Tyrese Spicer and de­fend­er Ko­bi Hen­ry- are rev­el­ling, not on­ly be­cause they scored but be­cause their items helped the T&T foot­ball team with its first win in the fi­nal round of the World Cup Qual­i­fiers on Fri­day, a 3-0 vic­to­ry over host Bermu­da at the Na­tion­al Sta­di­um, Na­tion­al Sports Cen­tre in North Shore.

Their cel­e­bra­tions were not al­lowed to last any time, with an equal­ly chal­leng­ing con­test against Cu­ra­cao on Tues­day to come. Spicer, de­fined by his blind­ing speed and skills with the ball, said he was elat­ed to have scored.

“In­di­vid­u­al­ly, I feel re­al­ly hap­py, I can't lie. It's been a while. I just have to be pa­tient. I got that goal to­day (Fri­day). Col­lec­tive­ly, as a group, I think this match was a very im­pact­ful match in the group. We need­ed the three points. Our mind­set go­ing in­to the game was very sol­id. Dwight told us to just be calm, com­posed, but have that con­fi­dence and em­brace the mo­ment," said Spicer.

“I think that's what we did to­day. We played re­al­ly well as a group to­day. Col­lec­tive­ly, even the subs that came on came on and im­pact­ed the game. It was good. We got three goals, but still, there were some mo­ments in the game where you thought you could have dou­bled our score­line. It shows that there is some room for some work to be done.”

Hen­ry, a 21-year-old de­fend­er in the US with Ma­jor League Soc­cer (MLS) Club Re­al Salt Lake, told the me­dia, “Yeah, I'm filled with pride and ho­n­our to score for T&T. I'm very hap­py to con­tribute to the win and get the three points. So, yeah, I feel great.”

Though Spicer has played for the en­tire fi­nal round of the qual­i­fiers, he joined Hen­ry in be­liev­ing they can move from strength to strength once they de­vel­op that chem­istry with the rest of the T&T play­ers.

Ac­cord­ing to the Or­lan­do City mid­field­er, “There's al­ways work for im­prove­ment, I would say. Even I, with my abil­i­ties and every­thing, I still could get some more chem­istry with my mid­field­ers and de­fend­ers. Every­thing is a work in progress. We take it step by step. We have the coach­ing staff to help us with the tac­ti­cal, be­hind-the-scenes work.

“We just have to keep go­ing and putting our foot for­ward day by day, train­ing by train­ing. You get that chem­istry, you get that bond. I look for­ward to Cu­ra­cao.”

Like Bermu­da, the Cu­ra­cao match pro­vides an­oth­er must-win con­test with a vic­to­ry need­ed for the cam­paign to con­tin­ue. T&T needs to win the group to earn au­to­mat­ic qual­i­fi­ca­tion to the World Cup next year, which will be host­ed by Con­ca­caf neigh­bours Mex­i­co, Cana­da, and the Unit­ed States of Amer­i­ca.

Hen­ry be­lieves there isn’t room to make many changes but as­sured the T&T team can win the en­counter and move on.

“The next thing is an­oth­er do-or-die for us, so back-to-back, there's not much of a turnover. I think we just ap­proach it know­ing how im­por­tant it is, but al­so just prepar­ing like an­oth­er game and mak­ing sure we go out there and stick to our habits. You know, on the ball, off the ball, and just get the three points.”

Spicer, on the oth­er hand, said, “Cu­ra­cao is at home as we go there, so try­ing to get some­thing from this match. I think it's a mas­sive game, hon­est­ly. We just have to stay calm, as I said be­fore, and be con­fi­dent. Just go there, it's away from home, and it's go­ing to be a tough en­vi­ron­ment. There’s no doubt that Cu­ra­cao is a very good team. We can't take that for grant­ed; we just have to do our work be­hind the scenes, just do our work on play­ers.

“I have to do my work on my right back and the right cen­tre back, mak­ing sure that I'm ahead of the game. We have to take it step by step; we can't rush it. Every­thing is pa­tience. Just by get­ting the right mind­set, hon­est­ly. It's an im­por­tant game, so we just have to go out there with the right mind. I think we can come out with a vic­to­ry.”