Trinidad and Tobago’s 2012 Olympic qualifying campaign came to a halt on Tuesday night as they suffered a 2-0 defeat to Honduras in their final Group B encounter at the Home Depot Center, California.

Requiring a win to advance to the semi-finals, the Angus Eve-coached team fell short on the evening and finished the tournament with one point following their 1-1 draw with Panama on Sunday. Mexico defeated Panama 1-0 in the later match to top the group with T&T finishing bottom on one point behind Panama on goal difference.

T&T started with two attacking forwards in Trevin Caesar and Shahdon Winchester for the first time in the tournament as they went in search of early goals and the latter had two glorious opportunities to put T&T on the scoresheet in the first half. Eve could chose not to utilize the services of Seattle Sounders striker Cordell Cato who sustained an ankle blow in training before the Panama match.

Honduras, the tournament’s defending champions didn’t dominate T&T for the most part of the match  but took their chances well with goals from Eddie Hernandez in the 37th minute and Antony Lozano in the 70th minute to seal their semi-final spot versus El Salvador which knocked the United States out the previous evening with a 3-3 draw.

The Hondurans, coached by Luis Fernando Suarez, hit the bar with Johnny Leveron's shot from the top of the area in the 17th minute and goalkeeper Andre Marchan pulled off a few good saves to deny them until he struggled to reach a cross from Wilmer Cristano which Lozano got a touch on before Hernandez nailed home from close range. Marchan had earlier made a brilliant stop to deny Antony Lozano

Daneil Cyrus and Kareem Moses were steady at the back with good support from Curtis Gonzales while Polish-based defender Mekeil Williams was a bit off his usual self.

The Honduras goal was an obvious setback for T&T which got good combination plays from Kevin Molino and Joevin Jones on a few occasions as they enjoyed a fair amount of possession particularly after the break. Caesar had a couple good looks at goal but he struggled with his footwork which meant his pace never really posed much of a threat in either of the three matches.

Moments after Honduras went 1-0 up, Winchester got a ball on the left of the box and cut into the area before preferring pace instead of placement on his right footed shot which went straight at goalkeeper Jose Mendoza.

Caesar’s best play of the tournament came in the 43rd minute when he used his quickness to beat his man on the right and moved into the box before whipping a good ball over but there was no T&T player to connect.

After breaking from a goalmouth scrimmage in their penalty box, T&T went close to equalizing when Molino crossed from the right but an unmarked Winchester could only direct his header from the top of the six yard straight to Mendoza and Eve held his head in dismay realizing how crucial a goal at that stage would have been.

T&T went all out in the second half and deserved credit for some enterprising play which saw the crowd behind them but they lacked the final touch and killer instinct on goal to trouble the Hondurans.

Molino had two efforts on goal, one a powerful over bar effort in the 63rd,while Bateau had a close range effort saved and 17-year-old substitute Jomal Williams had a shot stopped by Mendoza.

If T&T had started their matches like they played the final 20 minutes with the type of hustle and urgency in their play, they probably would stand a better chance of a more positive outcome. T&T went into the tournament with high expectations but simply did not deliver as hoped against opposition they are almost certain to face in future CONCACAF engagements. Technical Director Anton Corneal was in California for all three games and he certainly would have made his observations prior to now setting about on the necessary adjustments and improvements for T&T’s game on the international stage beyond the Caribbean zone.

Eve later expressed his disappointment on not seeing T&T progress in the tournament.

“I think the determination of the guys and the never say die attitude was good at times.  We did pass the ball well at times. I thought we played very good football at times after we settled down after the first couple of days. The biggest problem for me was in the goalscoring in the tournament,” Eve said when asked by reporters on his perspective of T&T’s showing. He also knocked Honduras for trying to stall the game at times with their players going down and holding up the play.

“I thought the guys played an excellent game. We gave away soft goals but saying that, if we took our chances we would ease off the pressure a bit. We brought on two faster strikers today and it worked well but we didn’t take our chances. Unfortunately we did not get the required result to move on and it’s back to the drawing board for us. Hopefully we can rise out of this and continue preparing the players to perform at a good level in international football.”

The T&T team will return to Port of Spain at 10:30pm on Wednesday night.

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