"We can't lorse three match in one day! I will cry!" a member of the media pronounced on Sunday evening at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya.
But T&T's young men proved the seemingly improbable could be achieved, suffering the same fate as the under-15 girls and the senior men (who went under 1-0). Their margin of defeat was 2-1. The "Marvin Lee" crowd had already seen the girls go under 3-2 to Jamaica less than an hour before.
Osvaldo Lemus put the icing on the Cuban cake to take home the trophy, despite Ross Russell Jr's calm finish of a precise Moriba Ballah cross in the 90th minute.
Lemus blasted past John Thomas in the T&T goal six minutes from time to leave the home team with just one other consolation: their appearance in the final hands them a free pass to the CONCACAF qualifiers for next year's World Under-17 Championships.
By the time of Lemus' strike, it was 2-0 Cuba. Earlier, Randy Lizama dived low to head Luis Portal's free kick into the T&T near post to take the lead in the 47th.
In the first half, T&T promised a lot, but delivered little more than hope to an almost fanatical home crowd. Skipper Jerrel Britto got the game going in the 13th, stinging the palms of an excellent Odisnel Guerra in Cuba's goal. After a few saves from him, it was evident that it would take a Guerra mistake, or something very special, to beat the Cuban goalie.
And try T&T did, coming close, but not close enough. Guerra's low dive in front of the fleet-footed Cordell Cato dispelled a serious threat to goal, with the defenders left in Cato's wake in the 16th.
T&T had a few nervous moments at the back, but generally kept the pressure on the visitors. Yet Reshad Wint had to slide by and prevent a certain goal by clearing Alejandro Marquez's cross. Britto brought the curtains down on the first period with a wicked blast that the gifted Guerra proved equal to.
Play had hardly resumed when Lizama breached the T&T backline. That sparked new life into the hosts, but Guerra made all the difference when it mattered. He foiled midfielder Shaahdon Winchester and Shaquille Steward from distance. The custodian could do nothing about Cato's bullet in the 57th, though, which cannoned off the near post. Britto again got into the act, but stabbed over from the edge of the 18-metre box, as he and his teammates seemed to rally to the crowd's familiar refrain: "T&T! We want a goal !"
Cuba had another scare in the 76th, when Winchester's shot was deflected and landed at Cato's feet only for the defence to scramble away.
The Marvin Lee Stadium turf must have truly been comfortable; the Cubans dropped like flies during the second half, eating up valuable seconds. Britto again sized up the target, but Guerra once more got in the way, then saved Russell's long range effort. By the time Lemus doubled the advantage in the 84th, there was no coming back for T&T.
The substitute combo of Ballah and Russell handed them a lifeline early in the five minutes of stoppage time to compensate for the long pauses in the match. They were almost thwarted, though, when a Cuban defender, lying in the six-metre box for some time, sprang to his feet to try prevent Russell's pin-point shot hitting the net. He could not, but that hardly mattered. Cuba are now the Caribbean Youth kings.
Teams
Trinidad & Tobago: - John Thomas; Reshad Wint, Zavion Navarro, Omarr Charles (Moriba Ballah 77th), Shaquille Stewart; Ryan Fredericks, Kylon Gay (Ross Russell 59th), Luke Hernandez (Vernell Ramirez 68th), Shahdon Winchester; Cordel Cato, Jerrel Britto (capt).
Cuba: - Odisnel Copper; Daniel Cantero, Yadien Ortiz, Yandri Prieto, Alejandro Marquez; Osdani Soto, Randy Lizama (Osvaldo Lemus 76th), Luis Portal (capt), Over Urgellez (Liosvel Hernandez 82nd); Raidel Fernandez (Humberto Puig 69th), Yaudel Lahera.
Final
Cuba 2 (Randy Lizama 46, Osvaldo Lemus 83) v T&T 1 (Ross Russel 92)