Trinidad and Tobago saw their Caribbean Football Union (CFU) Caribbean Youth Cup campaign end on a disappointing note when they suffered their second loss of the tournament, going down 3-0 to Jamaica in the third-place playoff yesterday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
The Young Warriors playing in yesterday's match did not seem the same team that had played their way to the third-place match. They gave away three soft goals to finish fourth.
The host team sorely missed the presence of their skipper and frontline goalkeeper Jesse Fullerton, who was not even on the bench for the match. He was nursing a sore shoulder.
Jamaica were the slightly more attacking team during an even first half. T&T's best effort in that period was a long range strike from Leston Paul that sailed overbar. Less than a minute later, Jamaica's Shavon Brown got into the act, but with just T&T goalie Terrance Ramsaroop to beat, he blasted overbar.
Then in the 29th, the T&T custodian let The 'Reggae Youths' in. A poor throw-out to a defender found the feet of Daren Orgill instead. With Ramsaroop off his line, Orgill had the simple task of lobbing home to give his team the lead.
Things got worse for the locals soon after the re-start, with defender Brenton Balbosa's late tackle just inside the 18-metre box getting Jamaica a penalty, which Damaine Thompson stepped up to convert. Two-nil Jamaica.
T&T persisted in coming forward, but found it hard to penetrate a very physical Jamaican midfield and defence.
Far too often, the physically overpowered locals turned the ball over. They eventually resorted to the long ball. But the two strikers up front, the diminutive Sean De Silva, and Chad De Freitas, were drowned helplessly in a sea of yellow shirts on each play.
Their best alternative seemed to be the cross from the right flank, which they were able to slip in a few times despite a heavy Jamaican presence on that side.
In the 65th minute, second half substitute Daniel Joseph had a good opportunity to head T&T back into contention, but he put Brandon Rupert's right side cross overbar.
Three minutes later, Jamaica put to rest any hope of a T&T revival, Jeffery Johnson running onto a long ball in the centre of the field, 23 metres out, out-pacing a defender and beating Ramsaroop one-on-one.
After that, the hosts had a few chances at goal but Ryan O'Neil headed straight into the hands of substitute goalkeeper Roybert Clarke in the 74th, and then late 'sub' Jean-Luc Rochford shot overbar in the 85th. At the final whistle it was Jamaica sealing third spot with the 3-0 win.
Following the match coach Ken Elie expressed disappointment with how his team ended the competition.
"I thought they played a very poor game," Elie said. "I don't want to make the excuse that we were tired; I think all the teams were tired."
He also felt the main reason for T&T's poor performance was the strong physical play of the Jamaicans.
But Elie was also positive about the teams overall performance. "I think the (T&T) Under-15s are well poised to start their Under-17 campaign. The team have proven (in this tournament) that they can perform very well."