 Now, goals were hard to come by, as Jamaican host Trinidad de Tobago contested a two-match international friendly series, which ended on Sunday at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima. Sunday's encounter ended in it all, after the reggae boys clinched Friday's opener 1-0, thanks to a debut strike from the 19-year-old Kahim Dixon at the Hayster Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain. They introduced 14 debutants across the two matches, and while head coach Heimer Hallgrimmsen admits there is work to be done, he says it was a worthwhile exercise. This game today, probably not the most beautiful football game I've seen, and it was a lot of, from our side, at least more longer balls than Trinidad. It was difficult to keep possession of the ball, so we did too early, always looking for the long ball. But in general it was a competitive match, always physical games against Trinidad, and I thought we coped with it quite comfortably, didn't concede a lot of chances, so if we take the positives from this match, it's what we played without anyone getting injured. That is a big thing in the end of season, or coming to the end of the season, not to get players injured for their clubs back home in Jamaica. We played two games, kept a clean sheet, so we can be happy about the defensive part of our game. Heimer Hallgrimmsen, they are the Jamaica head coach. Both teams were comprised mostly of local-based players, but TNT's head coach Angus Yves says his boys have some way to go to be able to match the physical demands of international football. I thought it was a good competitive game for the local players to play at this kind of intensity. So the exercise for both teams over here, the coach Heimer spoke, the exercise was excellent for both teams, exactly what we wanted to get out of it, sometimes people ask for players to get opportunities, and these are the opportunities that we give them over these two matches, and sometimes you get to see who could stand up to physicality and who could stand up to the pace of the game and stuff like that. So when I say our league plays a little bit too slow, normally I get licks fed a lot of times. You see some of the guys are cramping up there to blast some of the games and we have to get our players more fit and more active in the games. Angus Yves, they're a former TNT international head coach of the Soco Warriors. Now former international and the current football analyst Brent Sancho covered both games, and he joins us now to look back at what happened in the games on Friday and Sunday. Brent, let me start by asking you your reaction to the post-game comments from both coaches. Let's get your review first on what Halgrimson had to say. First of all, I would say that it's good to see both coaches have not just a mutual respect and of course a working relationship, but it's also good to see that they've been sharing information, they've been trying to make both programs better, and both games was really designed to give some of those young players the opportunity that they probably wouldn't normally get because, as you know, there's always Nation League game World Cup qualifiers games that would see a certain grouping of players play. So this was a game played outside the international window that gave the opportunity from the domestic league players to have a chance to have full international games. So that had a tick box that was excellent for all the teams involved, but certainly the message is sent from both coaches is evident to see, especially with the two games that transpired, the Jamaican team certainly in the right path. There's a caliber of players that could possibly step in for some of the injured players that probably would be called up or should be called up or would be called up for the USA game. And of course the Trinidad players are looking to be part of the Canada game. They still have some ways to look, particularly the bunch that played on Friday, you can see there's a certain level of lack of international exposure. And even the ones that played on Sunday, I think the cutting edge and the fitness levels that you would expect wasn't there as well. So I think it's a right assessment by both coaches. It does show where both programs are currently. Yeah, and Brent, there were a few of the TNT internationals that now apply their trade in Jamaica at Mount Pleasant and Montego Bay. Among them, Nathaniel, James, a teenager, and Aubrey. How did they do in this two match series for you? No, I think they did well. I mean, when you look at the players that made look for a spot and not playing that goes to Canada in the games, the game that is a kind of playing game for the Copa, I think certainly they cut the two. The duo from Mount Pleasant has done themselves good justice. You look at the centre half pairing with Jamal, Jack and Primus, and I would even add Trigginham, who plays his trade out at Montego Bay, and it's an area of the field we're trying out. It seems to struggle a bit as done well. The normal culprits in the likes of Green Market, unfortunately, got injured and had to come off half-time, and John Paul, Rushford, and Poonanginon, certainly their, their bouts for a national team call up. And of course, one of the new boys, Rondell Gibson, who would have played his first couple of national team games, I think he's knocking on the door. I think outside of that, some of the players obviously didn't live up to some of the expectation, but I think those are some of the positives that Angus, he could look at as it relates to a deeper and wider pool of players that he could possibly call from. Yeah, and Brent, you know, a lot of thought would be in that Copa America team. That's, that match is coming up just in a few days from now. If we were to look at it like that, March 23, what did you see? You know, positive signs or maybe areas to improve as we get ready for that big, big match? Yeah, look, it is certainly areas to improve. Of course, tactically, it would have always been a challenge to get the fluidity and structure that you would want. It's a kind of a slap together team of players that play locally. So I don't think Angus would have had the length of time necessary to get the right sort of cohesion that he may have won. But one thing's evident, Mariah, that I think that most people at the Larigoum stadium would have, when whispering out of their mouth, is the fact that Traya Tobago seems to have a certain shyness when it comes to playing forward in transitional moments. They've won the balls off of the Jamaicans and with the pace of Aubrey and James, just to name a few, it seems to be a little bit of a naivety and always wanting to go backwards instead of driving forward. Trinidad looked the most dangerous when they were on the front foot, when they played front foot football. But it seems that they wanted to go back. I'm not sure if that was an instruction from the coaching staff, but it's something that was very evident as it relates to the game coming up against Canada. Of course, Canada is odds on favorite to go on. But there has to be some substance in Trinidad-Tamago if they are to defeat the Canadians. They can't go there and expect to defend for 19 minutes plus. There has to be another plan, an alternative plan to try to get a result. So I think that is one of the question marks coming out of the game. Albin, as I said, it's a group of players that probably didn't have the time to gel to have a real tactical assessment done on them. Yeah, can't really give them a proper grading because, you know, these are just players, Angus Yves, of course, trying to feel out and decide if he adds them to his bigger group of players. Brent, were you satisfied with the turnout in Trinidad and Tobago? The support? It was a bit disappointing, especially in the backdrops of what transpired at the National Stadium on Tuesday when the National 20 team played against Canada and it was a sold-out crowd. It was reports of fans being turned around because there was an expectation of only 5,000 or so fans more turned up. And because of the regulations around fire and police, they weren't able to enter more. So you thought off of that, you may have had a bigger turnout in Larigones Stadium on a Sunday. I must admit the timing at 4 p.m. may have had some difficulties for fans. And I've always felt that Larigones is a stadium in terms of fans coming to could be a bit tricky. So I think those factors certainly played a part in terms of the attendance. And I'm only using the game on Tuesday, on the 20 game against Canada as a reason why they should have been more fans. And I think that would have been a disappointment for the senior team and certainly for the association because I do know they will cater in for more persons. Yeah, Brent, I guess the disappointment for me and I had a look at both games, the disappointment would be the decision-making process of a number of the players, especially in one-on-one situations. For me, yes, you're coming up against a like team on both ends, but I just thought overall in some critical areas of the pitch, the decision-making was not great on either side. I mean, your thoughts. No, I think that's a valid concern, Ricardo. Both coaches are seemingly very rigid in their approach. And I use rigid, not in the sense of almost hard and desk type of rigid, but they want to play with a particular sort of structure and a particular type of philosophy. And as I mentioned with the Toronto Bagel team, they seemingly want to go back before they go forward. With the Jamaican team, they went very direct. When you have players like Alex Marshall in particular, Fletcher, and of course, Young Dixon who showed great 1v1 potential, they were not able to express themselves more. And maybe because of both coaches wanting their both charges to stay within a respective sort of framework, they weren't able to. And that was a bit of a disappointment because you can clearly tell with the type of attacking talent that was on display, despite, of course, we can possibly say they are BNC teams, they were still players I could excite, but they weren't able to and they weren't allowed to. And it seemed like they didn't want to because it almost seemed like they were given instructions not to. Yeah, and a quick word, Brent, on the 19-year-old, Kahim Dixon, who scored the only goal of the two matches. Look, I thought he was outstanding. And he played with, as much as what I've just said, he played with a level of freedom that certainly showed that maybe he can be in the record. And as I mentioned, is a long list of injuries. Of course, the recent one being a Maribel being injured. So, can Dixon fit into the team? I think it would be a big gamble for the coach. But what he displayed on Friday, I think he should be there and there about any training team, any team that's in the pool of players to possibly go and play against the Americans because he's done exceptionally well. Yeah, okay, Brent, we're going to leave it there. Thanks for talking to us about this. As we said, the TNT and Jamaica both have important international assignments coming up later in March. The TNT team up against the Canadians and the Jamaicans in our Nations League semi-final against the USA. We'll watch their progress, Brent, and be in touch with you as well. Thanks, man. No problem. Yeah, and we'll be back with more on the Sports Mag Zone. Still a Liga to talk about. Big news coming out of Liga this past weekend. And on the other side of the break, we'll tackle that.