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Soca Warriors' let it slip against Panama

Thursday, 01 February 2007

Soca WarriorsBy Randy Bando...

Trinidad and Tobago stumbled to a 2-1 loss against Panama in Panama City on Wednesday in their first of back to back friendly internationals.

Tobago United?s Dwayne Jack scored the lone item for the ?Warriors? when he headed in a free kick by San Juan Jabloteh?s Kerry Baptiste in the 45th minute mark to level the scores at 1-1 on the half.

However the ?Soca Warriors? stumbled in the 81st minute in front of a Panamanian Crowd estimated at about five thousand scoring an own goal.

According to reports, the match officials recorded it as an own goal after a hustle of players contested the ball inside Trinidad and Tobago?s penalty area before it landed in the back of the net as Panama took a 2-1 lead and held on for the win.

The relatively new look ?Soca Warriors? will now travel to Costa Rica under head coach Wim Rijsbergen to play their senior team in their second friendly on Sunday before returning home.

Rijsbergen included Defence Force players Kevon Carter and Christian Baptiste as well as US based Anthony Noreiga for the two friendly internationals to replace US based players Keeron Benito and Makan Hislop who had to report back to their Colleges as his only changes from the Digicel Caribbean Cup squad.

The national coach had decided to take the squad of players he had during the Digicel Caribbean Cup on these two friendly internationals as part of his long term plans. The Dutchman is expected to continue to shuffle a couple of players as he looks to select the best team possible for the Gold Cup and ahead of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

The Trinidad and Tobago team captained by World Cup player Densill Theobald qualified for the Gold Cup by finished second in the Caribbean Cup behind Haiti.

Costa Rica on the other end under head coach Hernan Medford would be using this friendly as preparations for the upcoming UNCAF Championship.