Trinidad and Tobago's men's futsal team fell to a humiliating 11-1 loss in their final group game at the 2024 Concacaf Futsal Championship in Managua, Nicaragua, on April 15 as they were hammered by Dominican Republic (DR) to crash out of the group stage.
Having suffered respective 7-4 and 5-3 losses to the US and Guatemala in their first two games of the tournament, coach Paul Decle's team needed a victory in their final group game to give themselves a chance of advancing to the quarterfinals as one of the best third-placed teams.
TT started the game on the back foot, as Che Benny, who scored three goals in the first two games, was ruled out through suspension after receiving yellow cards in the first two games.
Still, coach Decle said his team had the belief they could get the job done.
Playing a DR team which got a stunning 7-6 win over the US on Sunday, TT found themselves facing waves of attacks in the first half and they went into the break down 3-0 after goals by Jose Belliard, Marco Gomez and David Rondon.
With the DR chasing goals to bolster their goal difference in a bid to top group C, the floodgates opened in the second half as they played the TT team off the court with precise passing and clinical finishing.
"Today's game was very disappointing, obviously," Decle told Newsday on Monday. "Unfortunately, we were on the end of quite a few goals today. It was a difficult one for us to swallow. While we are disappointed, we feel good about the effort we gave.
"I can't say we are happy with the way we lost, but we showed that we could play the game," Decle said.
The TT team looked disjointed defensively, and they were unable to keep possession for sustained periods to pose any real threat to the opposition.
By the 29th minute in the 40-minute contest, TT slipped to a 6-0 deficit. Jameel Neptune scored TT's lone goal in the contest mere seconds after DR got their sixth when he smartly finished off a pass from his AC PoS teammate Michel Poon-Angeron.
There was precious little for TT to celebrate thereafter, though, as DR capitalised on poor defending in the final ten minutes to add a further five goals to their jaw-dropping tally.
The impressive Rondon scored three goals in the second half to complete a beaver-trick, taking his tally to seven for the tournament. Belliard also helped himself to a brace.
Decle said the TT players showed they are on par with their Concacaf counterparts in terms of the quality they bring to the table, particularly with their fighting efforts in the first two matches. Crucially, though, Decle says the team lacks consistent exposure in a competitive futsal environment to go toe-to-toe with teams at the international level.
"It was always going to be tough coming up against countries whose players play in professional futsal leagues. The US and Guatemala have a professional local futsal league," Decle said.
"All things considered, we don't have futsal leagues and obviously it's footballers who are coming to play futsal. We are still proud of the team.
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