T&T need historic win against USA to boost World Cup hopes

NASHVILLE, Tennessee, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s Soca Warriors badly need a win to boost their FIFA World Cup qualifying hopes but history does not favour a successful outing against the USA in their CONCACAF showdown tonight.

With only two points from their first two final-round World Cup qualifiers, Trinidad & Tobago are gunning for a good result against the series leaders to keep pace in CONCACAF qualifying.

But they have never won on US soil, neither for qualifiers (0-1-6) nor overall (0-1-10), and have not scored a goal in their last six trips here.

The USA lead the standings with four points, with Costa Rica and Mexico sharing second on three points each.

El Salvador and T&T share fourth on points but the Central Americans are ahead of T&T by virtue of scoring more goals. Honduras is  at the bottom of the standings with one point.

The teenager Khaleem Hyland, who netted T&T’s late goal Saturday that earned them a 1-1 draw at home against Honduras, said the team is upbeat going into Wednesday’s clash at the LP Stadium.

“I feel right now we are in a confident mood but at the same time we know how difficult it’s going to be because America never likes losing a game, especially at home,” Hyland told TTFF Media on Monday.

“But our team knows how important a good result will be. We have to be confident because we are away from home. Getting the point on Saturday was still good because we remained unbeaten,” he said.

The 19-year-old Hyland is not ruling out an upset win over the series leaders.

“I think we need to stay organized for as long as possible in Wednesday’s game and take our chances as they come. We also need to ensure we don’t give them too many easy opportunities,” added the Belgium-based player.