Russell labels exit as another wake up call for local football

Needing a win to guarantee themselves a place in the CONCACAF final round in Mexico next year, T&T’s uninspiring showing did them no favours and their failure to convert the numerous goalscoring opportunities in their 2-0 win over Puerto Rico on Monday came back to haunt them.

The Puerto Ricans held group winners Haiti to a 1-1 draw in Friday’s second outing to finish runners up in the group. But even so, T&T were edged out of the possibility of sneaking the fifth qualifying place as the best third place team in the two groups by Curacao who ended the tournament level on three points and a same -1 goal difference but  finished ahead of T&T having scored three goals as opposed to T&T’s two goals.

Antigua meets Suriname on Saturday but one or the other will have to win by at least four or three goals to advance ahead of the Dutch-speaking island. The automatic qualifiers from the Caribbean are Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Haiti with Curacao likely to grab the fifth spot.

To add salt to T&T’s wounds, Puerto Rico’s go ahead goal in the 37th minute against Haiti by  Jose Abrams had controversial written all over it as Guyanese referee Sherwin Johnson blew his whistle after his assistant’s flag was raised for offside on the goal play.

The assistant then lowered  his flag and  Haitian goalkeeper offered no attempt at a save following Johnson’s whistle which was heard throughout the venue as Jose Abrams headed the ball into the net.

Johnson, after a few seconds delay, allowed the goal without even consulting his assistant. The Haitian players protested and the Puerto Rican players could not believe their luck at the time.

At half time CONCACAF’s Director of Referee Administration Brian Hall was seen holding a discussion with all of the tournament’s referees who were not on duty in that particular game.

One of the CFU match officials said the goal would obviously stand as well as the result, adding that T&T should be more concerned with its failure to pot at least once against the group’s weakest team. Perhaps he was right but as it turned out, a goal that resulted from a play that was first halted by the referee’s whistle was the one that essentially sent T&T out of the qualification.

A loss for Puerto Rico would have left them on three points and at least a -2 goal difference which would seen T&T finish in third spot on the final group table.

For Friday’s affair, Russell gave striker Dwight Quintero his first start of the series and opted for Marcus Gomes instead of the ineffective Jomal Williams, a former Under 23 midfielder. Skipper Duane Muckette maintained his place but did not live up to expectations in the  three matches, as admitted by Russell.  The skipper was not the only player who struggled to lift their game.

Defender Neil Benjamin who was out on trial with Italian club Genoa for close to two weeks, only rejoined the team last Friday and appeared jaded in all three matches.

The two T&T players who deserved a clap for non-stop effort was defender Alvin Jones, midfielder Xavier Rajpaul and Marcus Gomes who made his first start on Friday. While not looking for excuses, Russell later said he was hoping for more of his players to step up to the challenge in this round.

Once Curacao went ahead  they  were prepared to defend in large numbers but T&T  hardly threatened their opponents goal in the second half.  For the third straight match, chances were squandered in the opening half but even so, there seemed to insufficient zeal in the T&T team.

Seven minutes into the match, Central FC’s Shaquille Nesbitt hit over bar from close up and Quintero miss-hit from inside the six yard to an incoming right side cross.

Curacao  would then punish T&T in the 10th minute when Ayrton Statie played a ball in behind the T&T backline and  Geryon Alberto connected well with his left foot to leave T&T trailing.

Eight minutes later T&T defender Damani Richards muffed another close range effort, hitting wide with his left foot. T&T’s biggest squander came on the half hour mark when Gomez headed over bar  from mere inches off the goal line following a header  back across the goal from the left by Akeem Garcia

Neither team sparked much action in front of goal following the opening half as Curacao packed its defense but T&T also failed to get off one proper shot on goal for the remainder of the match. They pressed forward in numbers in the closing quarter of the match but nothing would go their way on the evening.

The T&T Team, which came together three weeks prior to the tournament, will return to Port of Spain at 10pm on Saturday. The next FIFA Under 20 World Cup will be held in 2015.

The focus now continues with the T&T Senior Team which goes into Caribbean Cup semi-final action in Tobago on Wednesday against St Vincent/Grenadines and the Under 17 Men’s team which is through to the CONCACAF Final round from April 6-19 in Panama.

Russell labels exit as another wake up call for local football.

National Under 20 head coach Ross Russell, not usually one to point fingers, believes that this country’s exit from the 2013 World Cup qualification is another wake up call for the country’s football at large.

T&T lost 1-0 to Curacao on Friday in Kingston in their closing CFU qualifier, in the process failing to advance among five teams from the region to the final CONCACAF round in Mexico next year.

According to Russell, this early exit was another obvious indication that National teams can no longer afford the luxury of assembling  mere weeks before a tournament and expect to easily get by Caribbean opponents. He recalled when even in his time as a player both at the youth and senior level, T&T would be able to pull off resounding victories without much preparation.

“This is no longer the situation. We thought that even with all the struggles that we faced, that we could come together three weeks before this tournament and get through but when I heard what the other teams had in their preparation, I knew we would be in some problems. I am sure people will be asking how our national team could lose to Curacao but we have to face up to the facts,” Russell told TTFF Media.

The Haitian team has been together for three years since at the Under 17 level. Their players are housed at the Federation’s Goal Project Centre and receive schooling and football training there a daily basis.

They return to their local clubs only on weekends to play and then return to the national team camp base. That is partly funded by Government as well as other stakeholders.

One Haitian official, who incidentally was involved in the early part of T&T’s 2006 World Cup campaign, said Haiti recognizes the importance of excelling on the international stage and the national team is a priority, hence the clubs release their players to the National Team well in advance of international competitions.

“This football is the biggest thing the players have in their lives and it’s the only way to achieve something for the people so they understand the importance of it,” said Frederic Aupont.

The Antiguan Under 20 team has been in training for the past eight months while Puerto Rico has also been together for several weeks.

“In T&T, if we are really concerned about our football and we want to go forward then more there needs to be more cooperation among the Leagues, the clubs and the Federation. I am also a club coach and I would like to try and help the other coaches realize the importance,” said Russell who understands that insufficient funding was the main reason behind his team not having a more extensive training program.

“We have to admit to ourselves that the preparation physically and mentally of our players at the club and school level is not sufficient for us to think that they can just come into a national team and excel. That may have been the case long ago because of the natural ability of our players back then and then the lower level of our opponents. But evidently this is no longer the case,” Russell said.

He is hoping the Pro League, Super League and Secondary Schools League can fit their schedules to support national teams.

“Inside one month before a tournament of this caliber, we still had to be worrying about getting access to players playing in the Schools League.

When we get the players for training, there’s not much to that be done during the sessions because we have to be wary about how much work they are already putting in while playing for the clubs or schools prior to a tournament like this.

Then a Pro League team decides to send a starting defender out on a two week trial just before the tournament and after coming back one day before we leave for Jamaica he is not his usual self in the matches.

“I will take the blame for some of the lapses because maybe I was not strong enough in trying to ensure that we got some of the things done going into a tournament like this.”

He is urging coaching attached to local teams to work more on their players’ readiness.

“We have to take these players out of their comfort zones at home. Not because a player might shine at the School level or with his club means he is automatically ready for the international level even in the Caribbean. We need to work harder with our players,” Russell stated.

“I for one was hoping to see our players lift their game in this tournament. We did okay in the first game but we threw away a lot of chances and it hurt us in the end.

And we did not step up when we needed to against Haiti and Curacao. My only hope is that these players are not left behind because some of them may not be of the age for the next under 20 campaign which means that we have to find a way to keep their in check either at the under 23 level or hopefully in some program before they can get to the senior level,”  the ex-National goalkeeper concluded.