Demoralised T&T leave for USA

PORT OF SPAIN, CANA:

A demoralised Trinidad and Tobago football team left here yesterday with the monumental task of defeating the United States in a CONCACAF World Cup qualifying match on Wednesday.

The match in Boston, Massachusetts pits the USA, currently top of the six-team play-offs against the struggling Trinidad and Tobago team at the bottom of the standings.

On Saturday, T&T received their biggest setback of the 2002 Korea/Japan campaign when they were defeated 4-2 by Honduras at the Haseley Crawford Stadium.

Despite the mounting odds against his team reaching Korea/Japan, a crestfallen senior coach Ian Porterfield still harbours hope of being among the three teams from CONCACAF to qualify.

"We need to pick ourselves up and try to perform well in Boston," Porterfield said after Saturday's loss.

"It was really sad to see how we played. But all credit must go to Honduras which is a useful team," Porterfield added.

Porterfield noted captain Russell Latapy was left out of the starting line-up because he was not fully fit.

However, when Latapy came on in the 56th minute, the former Hibernian (Scotland) standout injected life into the T&T offence and even got his name on the scorecard.

"Russell did not train very much and is still not fit. It was an uphill battle when he came on as we had to come from three goals down," Porterfield told reporters.

Star striker Stern John, who plays for Nottingham Forest in the English First Division said on Saturday that the team lacked a player in the centre to feed passes to the strikers.

He said this was where midfielder Latapy was missed most of all and when he did come on it was too late to change the result.

Newly appointed technical director Rene Simoes, the Brazilian, who has had great success with Jamaica, also harboured hope.

After the match, he said it was still possible for T&T to qualify for the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup finals.

"The defeat has made life a little more complicated. But it is still possible we can still qualify," said Simoes on Saturday.

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