MANAGUA, Nicaragua, CMC – Tom Saintfiet’s tenure as the new Trinidad and Tobago head coach started shakily when his side crashed to a 2-1 defeat to Nicaragua – their first-ever defeat to the Central American nation.
In the first international friendly at the National Football Stadium on Tuesday night, T&T conceded in either half and despite Hashim Arcia’s strike inside the last 15 minutes, failed to muster the enterprise to find an equaliser.
The loss to Nicaragua was T&T’s first in four meetings and 49 years after the two nations first faced each other.
“As a coach you don’t like to lose. I am disappointed with the result but I can’t be too disappointed in the performance of the team,” said Belgian Saintfiet.
“Nicaragua were full strength and naturally we missed a lot of players. We gave some opportunities for players to make their debuts with a lot of young players in the squad and it was the first game after only two weeks in training together.”
T&T were behind after just three minutes when Luis Peralta beat new custodian Adrian Foncette, after escaping his marker in the box and producing a strong header.
The visitors were then forced to defend stoutly as Nicaragua pressed, but the scoreline remained the same at the half-time whistle.
However, that quickly changed on the re-start when Daniel Cadena produced a long-range scorcher early in the opening moments of the second half, to double the home side’s advantage.
The 29-year-old, based in Iceland, collected the ball nearly 40 yards out and unleashed a superb volley which gave Foncette little chance.
T&T then seemed to spring to life especially with the second-half introduction of Tyrone Charles and Cornell Glenn, and for the first time Nicaragua found themselves on the back foot.
They pair combined well, with Charles coming close to scoring when he volleyed against the crossbar in the 58th minute.
Arcia revived the visitors when he pulled one back in the 75th minute. Nicaragua conceded possession in a dangerous area and the forward made no mistake in surging forward and clinically scoring from the edge of the box.
T&T failed to break down Nicaragua again and were also forced to do some defending in order to preserve the scoreline.
Tomorrow, the two sides will meet again in the second friendly, in what serves as a warm-up for T&T’s outings next month against Suriname and Haiti in the CFU fifth place playoff matches for next year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup.
