PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Captain Kenwyne Jones says Trinidad and Tobago will not allow their heads to drop, despite their most recent setback in the CONCACAF final round World Cup qualifying campaign.
Seeking their second win in five days, T&T slipped to a narrow 1-0 defeat to confederation giants Mexico at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Tuesday night.
The defeat was their third in four outings and left them bottom of the six-nation group on three points but Jones said afterwards the World Cup dream was still alive in the squad.
“I still have a hundred per cent belief in the squad. We have six games to go so we’re going to put our best foot forward,” the marquee striker said.
“The guys that are going back (overseas), they are going to go play. The season is going to be starting for some of the guys at home in probably a month or so. Everyone just needs to keep working hard and staying focused for when we meet up again.
The squad is a great one. There are still people who can come in, people can go out – you never know what can happen. The group is doing well, the coaching staff is doing well and what we can look forward to is the next camp and the next game.”
T&T opened their campaign last November with two defeats when they lost to Costa Rica at home and Honduras away, but picked themselves up last Friday with a 1-0 win over Panama here.
The road ahead will be a tough one for them, however, as they go on the road to face a resurgent United States who are fourth in the standings on four points and Costa Rica who lie second on seven points.
Jones, one of the survivors from T&T’s historic qualification for the 2006 World Cup, said one of the challenges of the CONCACAF final round was being able to win on the road.
“Whether at home or away, in this round that’s what is necessary – to go away and take points from the teams that are at home,” he stressed.
“We have two tough games coming up, USA and Costa Rica, and we’re going to buckle down and focus on that when we get together, and try and get the points.”
Despite having played only Panama at the weekend, T&T still looked the part against Mexico, especially in the first half when they put the visitors under pressure and even managed to score a goal through Joevin Jones, which was incorrectly ruled off-side.
Diego Reyes eventually produced a 58th minute header which settled the contest.
And though the result was not the desired one, Jones said the squad had come through the two fixtures in good shape.
“It is a bit difficult to play (two) games in (such a) short space of time without losing the solidity of your squad. Sometimes you have to rotate but then you don’t want to rotate as much based on the previous game,” he explained.
“It is a bit of a tough one for the coaches but at the same time I know that the squad is well equipped to weather any storm and for the guys that came out (last night) it was a bit tough but at the same time we did well in keeping up with the tempo of the game and working hard to try and close down the spaces.
“But in the end we didn’t have a result so we’re still disappointed.”