Kyle McIvor shone as brightly as the stars over the scenic Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago, as T&T scored an emphatic 8-1 win over St Lucia on Wednesday night in the preliminary group stage of Caribbean Football Union World Cup qualifiers.
Coming on as a second-half substitute, McIvor scored a hattrick inside 10 minutes with goals in the 70th, 78th and 80th minutes. T&T exerted their dominance from the start with some flowing passes and good movement off the ball, and should have scored as early as the fifth minute through Silas Spann. But it was Spann who opened the scoring, doing so directly from a left side corner in the 20th minute.
The goal of the match came soon after as skipper Javed Mohammed worked his magic leaving three defenders dumfounded by his dribbling skills and sent a left side cross for Shastri Spencer to volley home to the delight of the local fans. The visitors were awarded a penalty in the 29th minute when goalkeeper Kareem Charles took down an advancing forward for Caddius Emmanuel to convert.
Any hope the St Lucians had of getting back into the game were dashed when Micheal Brown lobbed the ball over the keeper in the 31st minute. The Tobagonians in the stands were jubilant in the 40th minute when local boy Nyron Orr, arriving late on the last post, finished off a Marvin James left side cross to give the young "Soca Warriors" a 4-1 half-time lead.
St Lucia came out after the break with some determination and held off T&T with a packed defence, but the introduction of McIvor by coach Nigel Grovesnor changed the situation. McIvor scored his first with a tap-in after Javed Mohammed provided a left side cross. His second came from a right side cross from Nyron Orr, which he headed home, and then he scored his third by wrong- footing a defender and then curling the ball around the keeper to score. It was duly left to skipper Mohammed to score his second goal of the night and round out the scoring on an helpless goal keeper from an acute left side angle. In the first match, Barbados defeated Bahamas by a narrow one-nil margin. The Barbadians and the local team will be seeking to remain unbeaten today when the competition in Group "A" enters the half-way stageBarbados playing St Lucia (5 pm) and T&T meeting Bahamas (7 pm). The final round will be held on Sunday at the same venue.
Hosts team Cuba, who plays the winner of the T&T leg, completed a clean sweep in Group "D" to advance to the next round for the FIFA Junior (Under-17) World Cup in Peru in 2005. Cuba opened the group with a 3-0 victory over Guyana last Wednesday, then had the same result over St Vincent & the Grenadines on Friday, before rolling over Bermuda by the same margin on Sunday.
The four winners of each of the respective groups (A,B, C, D) will advance to a two-match Second Round Series (home-and-away) in September. The Second Round winners will progress to CONCACAF's final round of qualification for the finals.