Trinidad and Tobago's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa have already been dashed but will surely aim to close off the campaign with some promise when they host Mexico from 8pm at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Wednesday.
 
On Saturday T&T playing for pride suffered a 4-0 drubbing against home side Costa Rica who needed victory to keep their hopes alive.
 
Mexico have already qualified and are not as hungry as Costa Rica were, and surely the Warriors will hope that the visitors will take Wednesday’s match lightly.
 
T&T head coach Russell Latapy watching from the sideline on Saturday saw an own goal by defender Radanfah Abu Bakr gave the Ticos their start midway through the first half and a smile by former Warriors coach Renee Simones.
 
It was Simones first match in charge of Costa Rica after given the task of keeping alive the Ticos chances of making it to South Africa. Simones got a second half item by Walter Centeno followed by an Alvaro Soborio double to overshadow some brilliant saves by Trinidad and Tobago and W Connection goalie Marvin Phillip.
 
Following the match coach Russell Latapy said he took some positives out of the match despite the loss.
 
"At this stage of the campaign, we always knew it was going to come into a tough match because Costa Rica had everything to play for while our chances of getting to the World Cup were already over.

“In saying that I thought we played good for 50 minutes before they scored their second goal and then we didn’t react well to that. We were punished with two quick goals,” Latapy said.
 
The T&T head coach continued, “Trinidad is in a rebuilding process and this time we thought it would be good to give some of the younger players an opportunity to get some experience. I thought that my team played really well in the first half and in the second half with a lack of experience and a lack of concentration, we had 15 or 20 crazy minutes and Costa Rica scored their goals.”

T&T returned home on Sunday evening and Russell Latapy will surely hope that his team will use the home advantage against the Mexicans. Mexico booked their spot in South Africa with a 4-1 win over El Salvador on Saturday while USA also qualified by way of a 3-2 win on the road to Honduras.