Though disappointed with his team’s inability to contest the current Central American and Caribbean Games football tourney in Venezuela, National Under 23 head coach Zoran Vranes was a pleased man following T&T’s 2-0 victory over Antigua/Barbuda’s Senior team on Friday at the Marvin Lee Stadium.
Goals on either side of the half by Sean Da Silva and substitute Marcus Joseph was enough to get past the visitors who are preparing for the Digicel Caribbean Cup.
Though beaten in their two matches here including a 4-1 defeat from the T&T Senior Team, Antigua were not a walk over team and head coach Rowen Benjamin will reassess his team’s showing ahead of the competition.
“I thought the team played very well especially in the first half but it was nice to see their performance. We scored two nice goals and we defended well.
I always say that defence is the key to success and I am very pleased with the way by defenders played today. Cyrus had a decent game and Akeem was excellent.
Bentick back from the USA was also good and Morris as well. It’s difficult to pick on one player as they all played well today” Vranes told TTFF Media after the win on Friday.
Now he expects to have a couple more friendlies as T&T looks ahead to a possible Pan American Games appearance and the qualifiers for the 2012 Olympic Games in Manchester.
“We have to talk about the plans for the future now because we have to keep this team together because they can be very good in the years ahead, I feel positive about this group,” Vranes added.
Turkish-based forward Juma Clarence also made a second half international appearance in his first outing since joining the professional ranks in Europe. He is hopeful of continuous progress.
“I thought we dropped off a bit but maybe it’s just my take because I haven’t played with the guys for a while but you can see the togetherness with every player having each other's back and that is always a good thing.
I think once we continue to work hard and play matches together then we can definitely achieve success.
“My first season in Turkey thought me a lot, I improved physically and my understanding of the game and my work rate has improved and hopefully I can bring more to the national team now by continuing to work hard and increase my knowledge of the game,” Clarence added.