Beach Soccer

AFTER CAPTAINING the Trinidad and Tobago beach soccer team to fifth position at the CONCACAF qualifiers earlier this month, Ryan Augustine will make his much anticipated return in Brazil today, when he begins a three-week training regime with stalwart South American beach soccer clubs, Flamengo and Botafogo.

Costa Rica took advantage of an under strength T&T to come away with a 2-1 win in their Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship quarterfinal at the Estadio de Futbol Playa, Costa Del Sol, El Salvador on Thursday night.

MAKAN Hislop is the only footballer to play on the National Football Team and the National Beach Football Team. This very pleasant and personable young man is from Hope village.

The 4-0 win for Mexico over Trinidad and Tobago was an amazing match that needed to wait until the final day of group day for excitements’ sake.

The 4-3 win for Trinidad and Tobago over Guatemala was a thorough use of energy on both halves of the pitch. Guatemala was on their heels in the opening minutes and were trying to run and catch-up for the entire match. Guatemala had more than enough firepower and weapons to make things tighter, which they did at times, but the Trinidad and Tobago energy and desire was too much. The win for the Soca Warriors puts them in 5th place, a very admirable position among the 16 highly competitive teams that took part in the tournament. The loss was not how Guatemala wanted to finish the event, but a sixth place finish is very difficult in CONCACAF and things could have been very different for Los Chapines had the ball bounced their way earlier in the week.

Trinidad & Tobago (2-0-0, 6 points) and Mexico (2-0-0, 6 points) remained perfect and became the first two teams to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2015 CONCACAF Beach Soccer Championship, each winning for a second straight time at the Estadio de Futbol Playa on Sunday.

The 4-1 win for Trinidad and Tobago was very deliberate and surgical as they slowly but surely broke down the sturdy Bahamas defense and took an early lead but did not secure matters or have things settled completely until the minutes. The Bahamas found themselves in a hole and had to dig their way out, which expended much of their energy. The Bahamas did find the next level of excitement late in the frame but Trinidad and Tobago were able to weather the storm and hold on for the win. The victory means that Trinidad and Tobago will play for outright 5th place on Saturday, against Guatemala. The tough loss does not mean the end of the event for the Bahamas as they will play in the 7th place match on Saturday against Jamaica.

Former national defender Makan Hislop has been included in a 12-member national team to represent this country at the Concacaf Beach Soccer Championship carded for El Salvador from this weekend.