THE Trinidad and Tobago Under-21 football team tamely surrendered their CAC qualifying match to Haiti in a 3-1 loss, which saw them exit the competition at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar, yesterday.
The hosts of the three-team Group Two entered the game confident they could get past the visitors to move onto the next round, but even in a must-win situation, they could not raise their game enough to get the desired result.
The young "Soca Warriors" started the brighter of the two teams when the opening whistle blew, but seemed to have lost their fight when staring defeat in the face in the form of a 3-0 deficit at the interval.
The first promising move of the match came in the ninth minute, when Hayden Tinto only just failed to control the looping cross sent from the left of the Haiti 18-metre box by Kevon Neaves, his header going awry.
Then, against the run of play, Haiti went in front in the 17th minute. T&T custodian Hasely Holder dived low to claim a pass on the ground, but the ball slipped from his hands and landed at the feet of Rood Kelly Jean. The Haitian striker rounded Holder, to easily slot into an open net.
Tinto, coming up the right wing, twice put the ball just wide of far post, in the 19th, and then again in the 23rd minute. But the opening item helped the visitors to settle and they doubled their advantage in the 37th.
Kelly Jean collected a cross on the right from a free-kick and had sufficient room to control and curl past Holder for his second goal.
Three minutes later Haiti added another for good measure, Fritzson Jean Baptiste spotting Holder off his line and, from outside the 18-metre area, chipping over the hapless T&T goalie for a 3-0 halftime lead.
By then T&T were out of the match, despite fighting performances by wingers Tinto and Neaves. The latter saw his 65th minute free kick from 23 metres out hit the left upright, and then another effort sail over a few minutes later.
Holder, at the other end, was relieved to see efforts by Jean Baptiste and Etienne Yveson whizz past his far post.
With the clock winding down and the outcome of the match already decided, Shane Calderon gave T&T a consolation item, slotting home from close range to breach the defence of Occenat Peterson for the first time in Haiti's two matches.
By then, though, it was too little, too late to help T&T's cause.