I have nothing but applause and congratulations for this under 17 team.
Them fellas play damn good and is the best ever performance I have seen from a TT team in a long time.
Them fellas play better than the Warriors in Germany.(UNDER ALL SERIOUSNESS)
For any of you who have seen this team from under 15 to where it is today the improvement is remarkable and we were simply unfortunate.
Possession in the 1st half was 45% TT 55% Ghana and we were never outplayed.
We were beaten by 4 moments of mental lapses.
I really cant understand some of the comments being made from people who were looking at the game.
TT controlled the midfield well, we knocked the ball well and were stringing passes under pressure superbly. The opening 5 minutes we matched our opponents and throughout the game we created chances to score, it is just we did not have that killer instinct infront of goal.
We did not make silly passes, we did not have many errors, our off the ball runs, team chemistry and cohesiveness was good. We defended well in a block and we covered our space well.
The Ghanians were taller, but we were as fit, we won nearly every 50/50 ball, we were quicker to the ball and we won most of the aerial battles.
What we had a problem with and I don't know why corneal did not make the adjustment was that their two wingers were faster than our wingbacks and we did not make the appropriate sub to deal with them, neither did we "Play tough" or use tactics to "ahem" professionally foul or disrupt the wing play.
After conceding the early goal TT played the game at their tempo and dictated the pace. We simply got caught on the break and Ghanas game is a long ball to the flank, square and tap home.
We switched off near the end of the first half and conceded two within a minute, fitness and mental concentration being the factors.
Also right after we scored, it seems we did not regroup and like Ghana took the touch quickly and scored immediately.
Other than that I am extremelyproud of the work ethic, game plan, fitness, technique, possession and play of this Under 17 team.
Our fwds threw away frankoment sitters and had we buried the chances we got in the opening 15 min it would have been a totally different game.
Keep your heads up fellas.
All we have to do is adjust the wingback problem and we good to go.
I was not impressed with Ghana as any big side and they will get disposed of in this competiton. Their defence is not good. They will be caught by any team with a good passing game and once their two wingers are dealt with they ent have nuttin else to fall back on.
Our Keeper played well and he coulda do nuttin for any of the goals he collected. The wingback with the plaits needed to get subbed as he was too slow .
Lastly the spirit of the game was a good one, no malicious tackles, no setta fouls, and the players hugged the opponents at the end. It was as if they were all partners on the field.
Thank you fellas for representing our nation well. Job well done.
Aight Touches, thanks for this brother, because I was a little confused about which team play...me eh see de game yet, but I too was surprised to see men talking about fitness level low with this team. As far as I'm concerned, this U17 team is a fit team, and is actually their strength. I doubt that is the problem. I'm glad for this perspective, because just from reading what was said, my conclusion was that they were playing too high to try and compress the field to limit the space, as Anton said he wanted to do.
Problem was the Ghana wingers were just too fast for our defenders so that tactic was a giant mistake. It meant that we just gave them tons of space to run at the back, opposite of what was intended. I personally believe that tactically we made a giant error in team positioning. Coaching error.
I'm glad to see too that they limited the passing errors, their achilles heel. They must have been playing some serious ball then, because when they on point, they can play some serious ball. I also doh feel that Ghana stepped off the gas in the second as much as TNT fitness came into play. I going and look at the game now and see what happen, because I realize that 2 people could see the exact same game and come away with 2 opposite impressions.
I go make a comment after.
