DESPITE trailing 2-0 after 31 minutes against Guatemala on Friday night, Trinidad and Tobago men's team football coach Angus Eve said his team never panicked as they got a stunning 3-2 comeback win to stay atop their Concacaf Nations League A group with a maximum nine points from three games.
For the second straight fixture at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo, 19-year-old forward Nathaniel "Natty" James completed a rescue act for TT as he came off the bench to seal the three points with a sublime free kick in the 89th minute. James was on the field for all of ten minutes before his left-footed set piece stunned the visiting Guatemala and put TT back on top in the six-team group.
With one more game to go in the group stage, TT need the solitary point away to Curacao on Tuesday night to book a quarter-final spot. Panama (seven points) and Martinique (six points) are still in the hunt for a quarter-final spot and will continue their own quest with their respective matches against Guatemala and El Salvador on Tuesday night.
On Friday, TT were at risk of relinquishing their advantageous position in the group after "giving away two soft goals," but Eve said things went according to plan in the end.
"We were getting chances throughout the game so we didn't panic. If we weren't getting chances then panic would have crept in," Eve said during the post-match briefing on Friday night. "We were always creating opportunities throughout the match. You panic when you're not creating opportunities but I thought the game plan worked."
Not for the first time, TT gave territorial advantage to the opposition as Guatemala had 55 per cent possession compared to TT's 45 per cent. The visitors also had 11 shots on target. TT had five shots on target – three of which crucially beat Nicholas Hagen in the opposing goal.
TT pulled a goal back before the break through a ruthless penalty conversion by the returning Alvin Jones, who also converted a penalty in a friendly win over Guatemala in June. Still, Eve felt his team's intensity needed lifting.
"When we went back in (at halftime), we felt as though we were giving them a little too much respect. We also thought that their two strikers weren't quick enough to harass our two centre backs so we went (with) man-for-man (marking) throughout the park and that's where we changed and put high pressure on them.
"We were not brave enough (in the first half). Second half we came out a lot braver and I thought we dominated the game for the most part."
Each of Eve's five subs had a positive impact on the game, starting with Defence Force attacker Reon Moore who came on for the injured Tyrone Charles in only the 20th minute. The speedy Moore was a livewire in the "number nine" role and his direct approach caused the Guatemalan defence several problems. In the 54th minute, Moore put TT back on level terms with a close-range effort after Hagen saved a goal-bound header by Neveal Hackshaw.
"We thought we'd start with more solid players and more physical players and wear them dow
