T&T held by Bahrain

ByReuters

Published 13/11/2005 at 11:10 GMT

Trinidad and Tobago were held to a 1-1 draw by Bahrain in an entertaining World Cup playoff first leg on Saturday. Trinidad's Christopher Birchall struck a stunning 25 metre half-volley to equalise with 12 minutes left after Salman Husein had given Bahrai

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Trinidad were the more dangerous team at the Hasely Crawford Stadium but neither Stern John nor strike partner Dwight Yorke could find a way past goalkeeper Ali.

The playoff, with the second leg scheduled for Wednesday in Manama, is the climax of a difficult journey for both teams, neither of whom have ever played in the World Cup finals.

Bahrain, renowned for their ability to hit teams on the counter-attack, played cautiously during the first half with their defence keeping the home side at bay.

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Although Trinidad piled on the pressure towards the break John's close range downward header was well saved by Ali and a point-blank Dwight Yorke shot was blocked.

Bahrain proved formidable at the back in the second half and Trinidad's probing play, orchestrated by Falkirk player-coach Russell Latapy, failed to produce an end result.

The visitors then took the lead against the run of play when Husein rose on the edge of the six-metre box to power a close range header past the helpless Kelvin Jack.

The goal stunned the noisy home crowd but they were soon celebrating as Birchall set himself to fire an unstoppable shot into the top left hand corner to level the scores.

The playoff, with the second leg scheduled for November 16 in Manama, is the climax of a difficult journey for both teams, neither of whom have ever played in the World Cup finals.

Trinidad finished fourth in the six-team CONCACAF final qualifying group to reach the playoffs, while Bahrain came third in their final Asian qualifying group and then beat Uzbekistan over three matches to qualify for the two-legged decider.

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