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Trinidad and Tobago as a whole were quite pleased with the display by the Soca Warriors in their World Cup Qualifying match against Costa Rica on Saturday. Although going down 3-2 at the Dwight Yorke Stadium in Bacolet, Tobago, Coach Russell Latapy was happy with the improvements shown by the players and the team.

The defeat left Trinidad and Tobago at the bottom of the CONCACAF table with only two points from four matches while Costa Rica climbed to 12 points from five matches.

USA defeated Honduras 2-1 to strengthen its hold on second spot with 10 points while El Salvador stunned Mexico 2-1 to move up to third with five points from four matches. Honduras is next with four points while Mexico, who hosts Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday, is next with only three points. Speaking to reporters after the defeat, the 40-year-old Trinidad and Tobago coach said, “I’m delighted with the way the guys performed. It’s an improvement on our previous performances and it gives us hope that we are moving in the right direction.

“I have to congratulate our players as they did what was asked of them. They came out and played with a lot of passion. Congrats as well to Costa Rica because I felt tonight we played possibly the best team in the group. They played well and they won a good game.” In his first match as coach since taking over from Francisco Maturana, Latapy lamented on the missed chances but at the same time, said that is just how it goes sometimes. “We had quite a few chances to score and missed. It’s always difficult to win games when you miss chances, because we knew that we needed to win home games and to do that you have to score goals.

“But that’s football. Sometimes you touch the ball three times and score a hat-trick and then sometimes you get ten chances and don’t score any.” Asked if  Trinidad and Tobago’s striker Stern John was missed, Latapy replied, “Anybody who can put the ball in the back of the net for you to win matches will be missed.” With regards to some of his substitutions, which created holes in the back to allow Trinidad and Tobago to play with three attackers in Jason Scotland, Cornell Glen and Kenwyne Jones, Latapy said it was a gamble he had to make at that time.

“It was a match we wanted to win because we knew if we want to qualify we have to win our home matches. We were down at the time and I felt that if I threw on another attacker, the match would open up. But the reality is that if you lose by one goal or two goals you still lose. So I had to throw on another attacker to try and get something back.” Asked about the starting role gived to winger, Hayden Tinto, Latapy said, “He’s a young player and surely one for the future. As far as our training programme went, he did well in training and deserved the opportunity. And I chose to go with a bit more experience in (Collin) Samuel at the half, and it worked a bit.”

Latapy revealed that he’s still looking for players. “I’m still looking to see which players I can play in certain positions but in saying that we had some new players in this match who I felt played well like Trent Noel. Looking ahead to Wednesday’s match with Mexico, Latapy said that at this stage every single game is hard and once again, history has shown that his team will have a difficult game.