GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala (CMC) — Second-half goals from Khaleem Hyland and Captain Kenwyne Jones were enough to lift Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) to an important 2-1 win over Guatemala here Friday night and hand them a great start to their qualification campaign for the 2018 World Cup.

Following a goalless first half at the Estadio Mateo Flores, the game came to life when Hyland gave the visitors the lead in the 67th and Jones doubled the advantage in the 80th.

Substitute Carlos Mejia struck in stoppage time for the hosts, but by then T&T had virtually wrapped up the points and broken their jinx of not having won a qualifier in the Central American country in nearly three decades.

“The team was unrecognisable in the first half. We’ve only had one player who’s ever experienced anything like this at a senior level and in the first half … there were a lot of errors. It was just a game full of errors and we were just fortunate to come out of there 0-0,” Head Coach Stephen Hart said afterward.

He added: “I was really pleased with the second half and the way in which we buckled down. We endured a rough period with about five or six straight corners, but we defended them well. We got the goal off a nice play with Khaleem, and then the second goal was just beautiful to watch with the pass from Joevin Jones.

“Sometimes you can’t always be playing beautiful football. You have to roll up your sleeves and do what is necessary to come away with the result, so it was not pretty. But we got the three points in a very difficult environment, so I’m happy with that.”

With the Soca Warriors struggling to find their rhythm, Guatemala dominated the first half and squandered a few opportunities to take the lead.

There was much of the same in the first 10 minutes of the second half as Guatemala camped out in the final third.

However, T&T grabbed the lead against the run of play when Hyland eluded Carlos Papa and curled a volley inside the far post from 10 yards outside the box.

Ten minutes from time, the inspirational Kenwyne Jones got the critical insurance second goal and finished with some aplomb. Joevin Jones picked him out with a well-weighted aerial pass on the right and the Cardiff City striker struck the pass one time past hapless goalkeeper Paula Motta.

Mejia, who replaced Elias Vasquez in the 54th minute, halved T&T’s lead in stoppage time when he converted a pass from Captain Carlos Ruiz.

In the other Group C game at the Busch Memorial Stadium in St Louis, United States, St Vincent and the Grenadines were hammered 6-1 by giants United States.

The Caribbean side grabbed a surprise 1-0 lead through Oalex Anderson in the fifth minute, but Bobby Wood (11th), Fabian Johnson (29th) and Jozy Altidore (31st) all hit back for the Americans to give them a 3-1 lead at half-time.

Altidore netted his second goal in the 74th minute as the hosts pumped in three more goals to run out easy winners.

The US will now travel to Trinidad and Tobago for their second game on Tuesday, while SVG welcome Guatemala in Kingstown.