He’s the baby of the National Senior Men’s Team and quite fittingly, Levi Garcia dedicated his two goals on debut for Trinidad and Tobago to his parents Carl and Judith Garcia.
Garcia scored two goals to lead T&T to a 3-2 victory over St Vincent and the Grenadines on Friday in Kingstown,
“It’s s moment to remember. 2016 has been very good to me. I had been praying all night to score my debut goal and from the time (Stephen Hart) said Levi warm up, I was just excited,” Garcia told TTFA Media after the win
“From the time I saw the guy backing, I just knew it was a one on one situation, take him on and shoot and it is just an amazing feeling to score my first goal.
“It’s not about age but it’s about focus, strength, power and doing your job so I came on as substitute at a very young age and just decided to play as I usually do and enjoy the moment. I did what I had to do and you can see what happened,” the 18-year-old AZ Alkmaar player added.
T&T head coach Stephen Hart was not doing any cartwheels after the come from behind win as he gave his reactions which indicated that he we was not thrilled by the team’s performance.
“I thought we didn’t show our real purpose in closing down the ball in pressing and our organization between midfield and backline was at times, for me, shocking, I didn’t realize some of the things we were doing. Once you realize a team is gong to play direct balls, the objective is to stop them from playing those balls from as early as possible.
“For the first half we had a lot of possession. We got into good positions all over the field and then we struggled to make the final pass or cross the ball properly or just have that impetus to have shots on goal. A goal scores on you and now you are away from home in a dog fight to get a goal back,” Hart said.
“I cannot accept this performance but what I would say is that we fought our way back. We got three points and we can play much, much better, We have to look deep within ourselves and be more efficient with and without the ball,
“It’s not about one player but it’s all about the team and our attitude at times was wrong.
“I think it was a fantastic debut by young Levi Garcia and Hackshaw came on, with textbook sort of pass, pass, run, finish and between two of them they got us back into the game
“Hackshaw has a few games under his belt, Levi is full of confidence and that’s what you need. You are picking players to contribute to the team.” Hart concluded.
The T&T team had a recovery session at the Buccament Bay Resort training facility on Saturday morning and will resume preparations on Sunday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. The team returned to Port of Spain on Saturday evening.
Both teams will meet at the Hasely Crawford Stadium from 7pm on Tuesday.
Tickets Are on Sale at All advertised outlets straight into Tuesday and will also be on sale from Tuesday morning at the Match Venue from 9am. Tickets cost $300 (covered) and $150 (uncovered). All Patrons including children must have a ticket to enter the stadium.
T&T’s win on Friday, coupled with Guatemala’s 2-0 victory over the United States left the “Warriors” atop the group with seven points ahead of Guatemala (six points) and USA (four). The win for Guatemala also meant that T&T must go for the win on Tuesday against St Vincent in order to stay ahead of the pack and look ahead to the closing two matches in September to seal their final round spot.