Coach Angus Eve takes blame for Soca Warriors 4-1 loss

HEAD coach of the Soca Warriors Angus Eve took responsibility for the 4-1 drubbing against Reggae Boyz at the 2023 Concacaf Gold Cup at City Park in St Louis, Missouri on Thursday night.

TT started the match defensively playing five men at the back, four in the midfield and one lone striker in Levi Garcia. The plan backfired as after 29 minutes the Soca Warriors were trailing 3-0 as the defence left open spaces at the back.

TT pulled a goal back through Andre Rampersad in the 49th minute, but a stoppage time goal handed Jamaica an easy 4-1 win.

The Soca Warriors will be eager for a win over US on Sunday at 7 pm to advance to the quarter-finals. If TT draw the match they will likely miss out on qualification.

The plan was to keep the match a close contest in the first half.

Eve said, “We were trying to keep the game a little bit tight in the first half, so we could go get those players on in the second half to express ourselves a little bit more.”

Eve made four changes to his starting XI from Sunday’s 3-0 win over St Kitts/Nevis. Captain Kevin Molino, Kaile Auvray, Triston Hodge and Ryan Telfer made way for Ajani Fortune, Shannon Gomez, Aubrey David and Malcolm Shaw.

Explaining the changes, Eve said, “Triston Hodge had a tight hamstring, Kevin Molino is just coming back into football (and) he complained that he was really tired and did not think he could start and Auvray had some little knocks and bruises.”

The coach said the moment may have gotten the better of the players, but he did not point fingers at them.

“Unfortunately we seemed to be a little bit nervous tonight. I think names probably scared us and we really made some bad mistakes tonight, but all in all I take full blame for the result because I am the coach of the team.”

The Reggae Boyz have many players featuring in Major League Soccer and the English Premiership including the likes of Aston Villa’s Leon Bailey, Everton’s Demarai Gray and West Ham’s Michail Antonio.

Speaking about the quality of the Jamaica players, Eve said, “Credit to Jamaica, the type of players they have and the quality they have in their team we don’t have that type of quality. It will always be a struggle, but when you give away soft goals (it is going to be tough). I thought we gave away a lot of soft goals early and we had to dig ourselves out a hole and I think credit to them the way they started.

“We just have to pick the guys up. The dressing room is very dejected. This is the first match we have lost in about nine (matches) for the season.”

Eve gave his players credit for their second half showing. “I thought that the second half when we came back on I thought we were really in the game and we created a lot of chances.”

Garcia, TT’s captain for the Jamaica match, said, “Obviously as we know it was a really disappointing result, frustrating evening but as humans, as footballers we have to get up and recover and try to recover as soon as possible because the games are coming in rapidly. Our main motive is to go out there and try our best to win on Sunday.”

Discussing the first half performance, Garcia said, “We just did not get it right.”