The Tribune

By TENAJH SWEETING

Tribune Sports Reporter

tsweeting@tribunemedia.net

WHILE numerous sporting events in New Providence were postponed due to a severe thunderstorm on Saturday, The Bahamas national men’s soccer team were in action versus Trinidad and Tobago at the SKNFA Technical Centre in Basseterre, Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The national team was unsuccessful against the Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) Soca Warriors and fell 7-1 in the Group B second round matchup for 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.

Assistant coach Kevin Davies shed some light on what went wrong for Team Bahamas against the Soca Warriors.

“It was a tough game. I think earlier in the game we took awhile to get into our game plan we talked about before. I think we allowed them to take us out of our game plan. 

“We struggled a bit and gave up some easy unearned goals just from mistakes. I think once we were down by three goals it kind of killed the spirit of the team. However, in the second half the guys picked it up a little bit and started to play like we knew how but, by that time, it was a little too late,” coach Davies said. 

Trinidad and Tobago, who were coming off a 2-2 draw against Grenada, put together a 4-0 lead in the first half against The Bahamas, leaving the team without a chance of a comeback.

Malcom Shaw got the initial goal for the Soca Warriors at the 6th minute and Alvin Jones managed to find the back of the net at the 14th minute to give the away team a 2-0 advantage.

Trinidad’s Duane Muckette would then join the scoring frenzy for the Warriors. 

He scored two goals for his team within the final minutes of the first half to give Trinidad a comfortable 4-0 cushion at the intermission.

Despite the early success of Trinidad and Tobago, coach Davies along with the rest of the coaching staff picked up some positive takeaways from Team Bahamas down the stretch. 

“It’s a lot of positives that we can take from the game. I think we can change our strategy a little bit and also our formation. I think we got the guys to understand exactly what we want them to do. I think we will see a much better performance in the next game,” he said.

In the second half, The Bahamas was more aggressive against the Soca Warriors and it paid off for forward Wood Julmis. He gave The Bahamas their lone goal of the game at the 87th minute but it was not enough as the Soca Warriors had already created a seven-goal deficit. 

Coach Davies said the coaching staff intends to ramp up the intensity during the warm-ups and focus on getting the team mentally focused to avoid in-game jitters.

“We had a brief talk yesterday. I think some of the guys were disappointed and some of the guys took on mistakes personally. Some mistakes have a bigger effect on others so it just takes a lot of talking to players and rebuilding their confidence. Today, the guys are more upbeat, laughing and joking and overall in better spirits so I think we should be fine,” he said.

Next up for Team Bahamas will be the host country, Saint Kitts and Nevis, competing at the same venue at 4pm on Tuesday.

Currently, The Bahamas is last in the Group B standings with a 0-0-1 (win/draw/loss record). Meanwhile, with the latest victory, Trinidad and Tobago advanced to the top of the standings with 1-1-0 record. 

The top two ranked teams in Group B will advance to the third round of the CONCACAF matches for 2026 FIFA World Cup qualification.