Photo Credit: Don Streete

Reggae Boyz Snatch 1-1 Draw With Soca Warriors
June 8, 2008
A penalty in the 90th minute helped Jamaica to  snatch a 1-1 draw with Trinidad and Tobago in their friendly international at the Marvin Lee Stadium, Macoya on Saturday.

Although the Reggae Boyz looked the more enterprising team for most of the game it was T&T that opened the scoring in the 30th minute with a goal from 19 years old Khaleem Hyland.   The goal followed a mistake by Jamaica Oneil Thompson who gave away the ball to Hyland allowing him to beat Donovan Ricketts with a low shot from 20 yards on a wet artificial turf.

Led by captain Ricardo Gardner, Jamaica stepped up their attack on the Soca Warriors as Gardner constantly got by Carlos Edwards in midfield and released some good passes to his forwards. Marlon King looked very dangerous as he hit a couple of shots wide, and on several occasions King was stopped by tackles from Dennis Lawrence and Markan Hislop. King also came closest for the Reggae Boyz, unleashing a powerful shot from the edge of the penalty area and striking the edge of the post in the 52nd minute.

As the game wound down and it looked like The Reggae Boyz was going to fall to their main Caribbean rivals, Jamaica got a breakthrough in the 89th minute when Ince brought down a goal-bound Shelton and Barbadian referee Rayon Small pointed to the spot. Shelton made no mistake from the spot as he easily beat Ince to his right.