WALTER ALIBEY
There is now a call for attacking players on the T&T ‘Soca Warriors’ team to be a lot more hungry and thirsty when it comes to scoring goals.
This call comes from former national striker Ron La Forrest who expressed the view that the T&T team should have beaten the United States in the first half alone, of Tuesday’s World Cup Qualifier at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo. The teams played to a goalless draw which means they have both gotten a point each which took them to four points after two matches in the qualifiers.
The US team will now face Guatemala in their next match while the ‘Soca Warriors’ will come up against minnows St Vincent and the Granadines next. However, La Forrest who is considered one of the better goalscorers to have graced the colours of the red, white and black of T&T feels the Stephen Hart-led Warriors should not be in this position presently, had they converted the chances that came their way.
He singled out inspirational midfielder Joevin Jones who received a golden opportunity in only the first minute of the match when his name-sake Kenwyne Jones was fed a ball down the right flank and instead of shooting, he pulled it back for the onrushing Jones (Joevin) to spoon his shot over the bar. La Forrest said “He should have at least put that one away because opportunities that come do not ever come back again” La Forrest said.
The Warriors also could have scored when Kenwyne Jones turned nicely on his marker in the heart of the US defence but saw his shot just whisked past the right upright of US goalkeeper Tim Howard in the 13th minute. And later in the 25th minute speedy striker Cordell Cato sped past two US defenders from an earlier Jones (Kenwyne) delivery but miscued his attempt wide of the post.
La Forrest said full advantage must be taken when opportunities like these come. “I think our attackers definitely need to be more hungry and thirsty in front of goal. We have to be more forceful when we are playing in front our home fans and make visiting opponents afraid of us,” La Forrest explained. He however praised the T&T team for another good performance, saying “It is the first time in a long while I have seen a T&T team dominate an American team like that in the first half. I have not seen that in a long time, but the other side of this is scoring the goals when they come.”
T&T also had a good chance at scoring late in the second half when Jones (Joevin), on another of his trademark runs down the right flank, centred for Cordell Cato in the 64th minute, but the latter saw harm from the outstretched boot of a US defender and pulled away.
In giving his analysis of the game La Forrest said the US team also had a number of chances in the second period of the match and also could have won it.
He feels coach Hart should have brought in defensive midfielder Neveal Hackshaw much earlier as the Americans did their homework at the half-time interval and enjoyed most of the chances in the second half. “They were getting behind our backs consistently in the second half and I thought Hart should have realised this earlier and given them something to think about, which was to bring in a defensive man to stifle their attack” La Forrest explained.