Yorke hails debutant Sealy
Yorke hails debutant Sealy
Trinidad and Tobago men’s football team head coach Dwight Yorke believes his team needs to be more ruthless in their approach to the game following a thumping 6-2 victory over St Kitts and Nevis at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Mucurapo on June 6.
“We need to be a little more ruthless! We are a reactive team rather than a proactive team,” said Yorke at the post-match conference. The former T&T skipper was concerned that every time his team took the lead, they became complacent by dropping back and inviting pressure from their opponents.
He said, “At times we dropped so deep the connection was not together in the first half. There were lots of gaps, so we need to be more compact. We are a team that is growing, and the lads reacted well second half.”
At half-time with the score tied at 2-2, Yorke took off midfielder Andre Rampersad and left back Darnell Hospedales for Ajani Fortune and Andre Raymond respectively. The coach admitted that those subs were a pivotal moment in the second half as they became a more competent team, especially in attack which took the game away from St Kitts and Nevis.
However, Yorke believed that if striker Levi Garcia scored his penalty in the 27th minute to increase the lead to 2-0 it would have sealed the match but instead the save from Kittian goalkeeper Julani Archibald gave his team some energy to attack the TT team.
Yorke was also full of praises for the debutant Dante Sealy, the son of former TT striker Scott Sealy, who was the standout player in the match as he netted two goals.
“He has done extremely well and scoring two goals. He certainly improved our team, and I look forward to working with him and trying to improve him going forward. He is a special talent delighted to have him in our setup,” said Yorke.
Another positive aspect of the match was the support from the people of TT. Yorke was appreciative of the approximately 20,000 fans who showed up at the match, the most in almost a decade. “Credit to the people of Trinidad and Tobago, the crowd played a part. I haven’t seen the fans come out like this for a football match…. It is good to see football on the top of the tree again.”
The 22-year-old CF Montreal winger, Sealy described his first match for the twin-island republic in front of a packed stadium including his family. “It was a great feeling; I had my family here … I’m honoured to represent the country. I couldn’t wait to get the game started to show myself.”
Explaining what the TT team did differently in the second half that produced four unanswered goals. “We had to react, and we reacted in the right way, it was unfortunate, but we decided to put in the work. We pushed the lines, be more aggressive and didn’t give them any second chances on the ball.”
Sealy boasted about the crowd support at the match, “Probably one of the craziest atmospheres I have ever played in as a professional. It was exhilarating having the fans behind you like that you can’t take for granted.”
