Trinidad and Tobago men's goalkeeper Marvin Phillip commended his team-mates for showing a warrior spirit during the team’s two-match tour of Jamaica. The Soca Warriors won the first game 1-0 and held their hosts scoreless in the latter.
In the first match on Saturday, TT defeated the Reggae Boyz at the Catherine Hall Sports Complex in Montego Bay thanks to a second-half strike from Reon Moore. The second match was held at the National Stadium in Kingston on Tuesday.
TT fielded a team of mostly local-based players.
“It was great to have the results we had…We don’t have an active league at the moment and we were just training for a couple months and we came and gave a good account of ourselves for the two games,” Phillip said.
Local-based players have only played periodically over the past three years because of the covid19 pandemic. However, the footballers will start to get more regular playing time as the TT Premier Football League kicked off on March 10.
Speaking about the team’s showing, Phillip said, “I think the effort and the fight was great for both games. Our football has been lacking that for quite a long while, so I guess the fight and effort was outstanding for us for both games.”
TT used the matches against Jamaica as preparation for upcoming Concacaf Nations League matches versus Bahamas in Nassau on March 24 and against Nicaragua on March 27 at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago. Two wins will see TT qualify for the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup.
“These two games were a good exercise for us to head into the Nations League. We want to carry that momentum. We definitely need two wins to go to Group A and automatic qualification for the Gold Cup,” Phillip said.
Midfielder Matthew Woo Ling, who started the second match, showed quality and initiated many of TT’s attacking plays for Moore and Jomal Williams.
Woo Ling said, “It is always a pleasure to come back and play for the national team. I think we had two positive results – a victory and a draw against a very good Jamaica team.”
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