Fitness challenges and a lack of playing time led to Bolivia thrashing the T&T Senior Men’s team 5-0 yesterday, January 21, at the Estadio Olimpico Patria in Sucre. Head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago national team, Angus Eve explained a little more about what led to the defeat at the opening international friendly for 2022.

“It was really difficult from a physical standpoint for the players and once your physicality goes, the technical part tends to go. We played a very good team tonight,” he said to the TTFA Media following the game.

The team has not played an international match since the Concacaf Gold Cup in July last year. There had also been no domestic football in about two years. These factors combined with the high altitude proved to be the team’s undoing.

“I was not expecting the result but I expected the way it would have gone when we took the game,” Eve added. He went on to say that he was still satisfied with the fight that the team showed.

“The guys fought, they were resilient sometimes. We went about 30-something minutes without conceding and then we conceded some soft goals. But there were a lot of positives,” he continued.