Hall optimistic as Tridents eye World Cup qualifiers

The Bajan Tridents have a good platform laid heading into the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers starting early June, says senior national men’s head coach, Kent Hall.

Speaking to the media following last week’s two international friendly games against an evenly matched host team, Dominica, which ended consecutively in a goalless draw at Windsor Park Sports Stadium, Hall, while expressing his disappointment, said he was still pleased with the effort shown by his players, exhibiting great attitude on the field of play.

“I am pretty pleased with the performance but just a little disappointed in the result, and mostly because if it was a boxing match, I think we would win on points. But that is football, we have to get the ball in the net to get the results that we need,” he stated.

Hall noted that there were still some positives to take away from the matches in Roseau.

“There are still a lot of positives. Keeping clean sheets is massive. Being able to control the vast majority of the game was good. We certainly improved from the first game to the second game in how we played in the progression phase.

“So, we were able to get into the final third with a lot more controlled situations. But we can see we need to sharpen up things there and be a bit more incisive to create the quality of opportunities that we want, with a little more frequency,” Hall shared.

He added, “Overall, I am very pleased with the attitude of the players and the work. We still know there are fitness levels that we can improve. It has been difficult to work on that because everyone is in the middle of the Premier League season, and we have to be mindful and respectful of their responsibilities to their clubs.”

As the senior men’s team gears up to host Aruba in their opening World Cup Qualifier on June 4th at the Barbados Football Association’s Technical Centre in Wildey, and another match on June 10th against regional counterparts St. Lucia at the Darren Sammy Stadium, Hall revealed that the idea was to see how the players handled the experience, especially the nine debutants who travelled to Dominica as part of a 23-member squad.

“We have been able to expose some players to this level and see how they handle it. I think for some of them, it was an eye-opener to just how much more physically demanding it is and the speed of play.

“Overall, I would say we made good use of the situation and are happy enough coming away from here, even if the results weren’t what we would have liked.” (AS)