1-0 Trinidad late in the first half as Yorke(!!!!) scored an early goal. Iceland has had a bit more of the possession since I started watching, but Trinidad has created some dangerous counters down the left flank. Free, good quality webcast at http://www.sportal.com
Trinidad won 2-0 as Yorke added a PK in the second half. Couldn't tell who drew the penalty as I had the sound off.
According to BBC Radio 5, Stern John drew the penalty. All in all, a good result for CONCACAF. Any WC qualifier should beat Iceland so this is mostly just a result that went as expected. Doesn't help the CONCACAF image too much, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Of course, how T&T performs at the WC will play a much bigger part in the CONCACAF image.
If I'm not mistaken Iceland have a few good players playing in the Premiership. They may not have qualified for the WC but they are not as bad as you might think. Maybe you would say the same thing if the Reds played Turkey
Iceland has had draws with Italy and Germany in the past, they are from a top Euro side but have had close results with some of the big boys. Their previous result against a CONCACAF team was a 0:0 Draw with Mexico in 2004 in a friendly in the US. They have beaten Italy 2:0 in 2004 and a 0:0 draw with Germany at home, as well as beating Sweden 2:1 in 2000. It was a good test for T&T and glad they did the job, it could've been a larger scoreline if they finished all their chances.
Surely you're not saying Iceland is a good team? 4 points in their WC qualifiers, 1 win and 1 tie against Malta.
Iceland has some big names in the EPL. This friendly was the first under a new coach, a lot of their fans said that the old coach was to blame for the very poor run in WCQ. I never said they were great, but previous results show that they can be very troublesome for well established sides.
We also play Wales and Slovenia. The friendly schedule is as follows: May 10th: T&T vs Peru (in Port of Spain) May 27th: T&T vs Wales (in Austria) May 31st: T&T vs Slovenia (in Slovenia) June 3rd: T&T vs Czech Republic (in Prague) We also play a club side in Austria somewhere inbetween.
Despite having a population under 500,000 Iceland actually has a pretty decent national team. Several premiership and championship players in their side. They nearly qualified for Euro 2004, losing out on the last day. I would say their standard is similar to that of T&T.
Thanks...had no idea about the games against Slovenia and Wales. I notice your schedule made no mention of games in March and April. What will the Soca Warriors be doing for those months?
I'm not sure. There aren't any official Fifa friendly dates in either month I don't think. Playing a friendly with a B team would be a bit pointless since the majority of the potential 23 are in foreign clubs.
This was a good match for Trinidad & Tobago. Iceland play similar to their Nordic cousins, Sweden, so now the Socca Warriors will be a little more familiar with that style of play heading to Germany. Also Iceland bombed in WCQ but they have embarrassed Italy a few times in friendlies over the past year or so. I like the matches against Peru and Wales to prepare for Paraguay and England... but there is really no point in playing Slovenia and the Czechs... no team in Group B plays anything similar to those styles of play. I guess it'll be good practice, just to field a team and play together, but other than that, nothing really. They should have tried to schedule Scotland or Uruguay. Those would have been good preparation.
I agree with your comments but I think Wales is far more talented than Scotland, and I would prefer to see the Reds play against the likes of Ryan Giggs and Savage than play against the Scots. Ideally we could have also done with a friendly against the Republic of Ireland....... after all they just cork screwed Sweden 3-0
Actually I meant keep the Wales and Peru friendlies and then play Scotland and Uruguay instead of Slovenia and Czech Republic. The Czechs probably wanted this game so they could familiarize themselves with CONCACAF opponents (since they are in the USA's group), but T&T doesn't really play that similar to the USA (they probably don't know that though, in fact, given what I've read the Czechs say, I don't think they have a clue what goes on, on this side of the Atlantic, in terms of soccer at least). Slovenia is not going to the World Cup so I honestly have no idea why T&T are playing them. I guess just practice, can't hurt... but won't help that much either.