Striker Qian Grosvenor broke Trinidad and Tobago’s scoring drought on their current international warm up tour but it was insufficient to prevent them from going down 3-1 to South Korea on Saturday evening at the National Training Centre in Seoul.
The two National Under 20 teams are preparing for the upcoming FIFA Under 20 World Cup in Egypt and both coaches, T&T’s Zoran Vranes and Korea’s Hong Myung-Bo would have been curious to see how their respective teams would fare against each other. Korea are coming off a 4-1 victory over Egypt (T&T’s first match opponents at the World Championship) there last month and also played to a 3-3 draw with the World Cup hosts while also drawing 2-2 with Czech Republic in the three-nation tournament. Korea meantime will face off with United States in the World Championship and were well aware that T&T were up against them during the Concacaf qualifiers.
Korea had the better start of the two teams, reacting quicker and enjoying faster and better movement on either side of the park. Two minutes in Glenroy Samuel had to block Chun Suk’s attempt after Mikeil Williams had his pass intercepted.
Grosvenor managed to put the ball into the net on 25 minutes but the item was ruled offside. A little more than ten minutes later, forward Trent Lougheed almost stole the lead for the visitors when he met a ball from the left and quickly let go a right footer from close in which was deflected out by a defender for a corner. Same time his captain Leston Paul was screaming in a perfect open position behind him but without the ball.
Korea went ahead from the penalty spot when defender Daneil Cyrus was adjudged to have clipped Chun Suk from behind resulting in the same player converting the kick.
And just when it seemed T&T would keep the lead to one going into the break, Korea were gifted a second item when Kim Bum’s feeble shot from an inside left position went through Samuel and Jae Man was on spot to push the ball over the line.
Vranes had a few stern words for his players at the interval and the 100 odd on lookers also appeared wanting the visitors to get themselves back into the encounter.
Paul and company did put in the extra effort. Sean De Silva’s drive from 20 metres out had goalkeeper Noh Dong Gun saving low to his right in the 50th and Curtis Gonzales had the ‘keeper scrambling to get back on his line with an ambitious effort from way out on the right.
Soon after that T&T were rewarded when Lougheed and Grosvenor combined and the latter clinically shot home from the top edge of the box. The goal was well appreciated by his teammates but the celebrations were shortlived as some untidy work by the usually reliable back line allowed Korea to go 3-1 up. Missing from the action was Akeem Adams who was sidelined with stomach problems.
A low ball from the right squeezed through Samuel and a defender and Jung Han ran in on the far post to slot home.
T&T weren’t prepared to give in just yet and Lougheed was unlucky not to put his name on the scoresheet. After taking the ball well on his chest, he could only look on in dismay as his powerful crack crashed off the underside of the cross bar in the 75th minute.
Vranes introduced Kevin Molino and Marcus Joseph into the midfield while Daniel Joseph and Juma Clarence also made late appearances.
The T&T coach later explained that he wasn’t disappointed at the end of the 90 minutes.
“This game was better than the first two but again simple mistakes is what we killed ourselves with. It’s nonsense to concede three goals the way we did today,” he told TTFF Media.
“But aside from that I cannot say that I am disappointed. It was a very good warm up game for us because we see now where we are at in relation to a team like South Korea a few months before the tournament. We cannot allow soft goals against good teams especially if we intend to get good results in Egypt.
“I believe if we can iron out those problems we can perform better and our results will be better too. I thought we were good in the first half too and then we were able to create a couple good chances. We need to communicate better and have a better understanding and of course a lift in confidence will be a very good thing for us. We are working toward all of this in the build up to the opening game against Egypt,” Vranes added.
South Korean coach Myung Bo, a former Senior team captain and idolized World Cup player in his country, said he was looking forward to the second meeting between the teams on Monday.
“I thought the game was good for both teams. We were winners but Trinidad has a strong team. They are fast and I think if they continue to work well then they can be ready to get a good result at the Championship. We won 4-1 over Egypt last month and drew our two games so I was looking to see how we would make out today against Trinidad. I am pleased with the way they match went,” Myung Bo said after his team’s victory.
View highlights T&T vs South Korea
View Coach's post game comments
T&T's first day in Seoul
MATCH
Result: South Korea 3 (BAE Chun-Suk 41, HAN Jae-Man 44, CHOI Jung-Han 70) v Trinidad & Tobago 1 (GROSVENOR 55)
Competitoin: Friendly
Date & time: 2 May 2009, 4pm
Venue: Paju NFC, Korea
SK: NOH Dong-Gun; KIM Young-Kwon (LEE Taek-Ki 89th), HONG JEONG-HO (JANG Hyun-Soo 13th), KIM Min-Woo (HONG Cheol 70th), CHOI Ho-Jung, OH Jae-Suk (CHO Young-Hoon 91st), KIM Eui-Bum (KIM Young-Wook 62nd), CHOI Sung-Keun, HAN Jae-Man (CHOI Jung-Han 55th), KIM Dong.
Coach: HONG MYUNG-BO
T&T: Glenroy Samuel; Sherron Joseph, Aubrey David (Marvin Manswell 80th), Curtis Gonzalves (Jevon Morris 90th), Leston Paul, Sean De Silva, Trent Lougheed (Daniel Joseph 85th), Uriah Bentick, Mikeil Williams, Daneil Cyrus, Qian Grosvenor (Juma Clarence 89th).
Coach: Zoran Vranes