Technical Director Mr. Lincoln Phillips has been working hard behind the scenes trying to help the national under 21 team prepare for the all important CAC games. Lincoln, speaking to the www.socawarriors.net stated that the U-21, in their preparation for the CAC games in Colombia, continued their preparation after a successful 4 game tour to Tampa, Florida.
Playing against top professional players, our boys lived up to their nicknames "Soca Warriors". They never backed away from a challenge and adjusted to the speed of play in the games vs the pro teams.
Now back home in T&T, coach Ron La Forest and the rest of his Technical Staff scheduled 6 games against the top professional teams in T&T: San Juan Jabloteh, Caledonia AIA Fire, Joe Public; United Petrotrin; Defence Force and 2005 PFL champions W Connection. The intent here was to keep our players constantly playing at a level that is higher than their own. The goal result of the game was not the first priority during this period. The coach focused on speed of play in attack and relentless pressure on the opponent in all parts of the field" added Phillips. Mr. Phillips will now give us a rear break down on the teams recent games in T&T.
VS W Connection
The first game vs W Connection ended in a 1-1 tie with Gorian Highley scoring the lone goal for T&T. The team's constant pressurizing tactics kept W. Connection's tally to only one goal in the game. T&T had the their fair share of chances and could easily have won the game were it not for faulty finishing.
March 7.
We had no stadium field to practice on so coach La Forest opted to use the Queen's Park Savannah grounds. There was a steady down pour of rain that evening but the players practiced anyhow. I admired their attitude towards practicing on a bad Savannah field in the pouring rain. In this practice session, I saw signs of a mentally strong team in the making.
March 11
The team trained at Larry Gomes Stadium where coach La Forest focused on ball possession for the entire session in preparation for the next game vs a strong Joe Public team. The thought here was that once the team possessed the ball, against a stronger team for long periods of time, the opponent will have less time in which to score goals.
March 16. VS Joe Public
For the first 20 minutes of the game, Joe Public took complete control of play as T&T were just mere spectators. It seemed that some of our them were in awe playing against the likes of Gary Glasgow, Lyndon Andrews, Arnold Dwarika and Kerwyn "Hardest" Jemmott for the first time. During this period T&T did not possess the ball long enough and failed to pressurized the opponent as directed by the coach. Joe Public eventually scored their first goal in the 15th minute only to see T&T equalize against the run of play. The equalizer came from a free kick taken by Josimar Belgrave. Kyle Andrews was on spot to score his first goal when the resulting spot kick rebounded off the upright and he was on spot to give T&T their equalizer. T&T looked a bit more aggressive after their first goal and took the game to Joe Public.
It was no surprise when fleeted Keston Alexander got in behind the Joe Public's defense and was taken down form behind in the penalty area. Gorian Highley made no mistake with the spot kick sending T&T up by a score of 2-1. The second half of the game was evenly contested until coach La Forest inserted several of the reserve players and that's when the team lost its chemistry. Joe public was able to equalize and romped home with an easy 4-2 victory.
March 18 VS United Petrotrin
This game was a more evenly contested affair since coach La Forest elected to use only 18 players for this game. Ron's focus during this game was to field a consistent team on the field rather than having frequent substitutions with the large group of players in attendance (32). The team played well enough to have won but again faulty finishing robbed them of a good result. Petrotrin scored a very soft goal which took the wind out of the sails of the Young Warriors. The game ended 2-0 in favor of Petrotrin with Hayden Tinto having a great game before he left the field with an injury.
March 21
Team Practice in the Savannah-Stadiums not available.
March 23 VS San Juan Jabloteh
Jabloteh fielded a very strong team which looked like they were ready to play a final which was a good test for us of course. T&T played their very worst game and lost 1-4. The entire team looked lethargic and never looked like they wanted to play. We found out later that most of the players were involved in very strenuous training two days prior to this game. Coach La Forest just wrote the game off and blamed the poor showing to physical and mental fatigue.
March 25 VS Caledonia AIA Fire
This was one of T&T's best performances for the past two weeks. The pressurizing in every part of the field was just outstanding. At last the players understood how to collectively win the ball by quick tackles and double teaming the opponent with the ball. On the offensive side the players possessed the ball for long periods which ended in a 4-2 romp to the Young Warriors. Keston Alexander, Hayden Tinto, Shane Calderon and Judah Hernandez (all very fast players) scored a goal each for T&T.
March 26 VS Defence Force.
T&T lost 0-1 but should have easily won by 6 clear goals. Extremely poor finishing really robbed the boys of a great performance. At one time T&T looked as if they had thirteen players on the field. They pressures so very causing the Defence Force to give up possession of the ball throughout the game.
A catastrophic mistake by substitute goalkeeper Adrian Foncette on a pass back gave the DF their only goal of the game. In the meantime T&T forwards could not score a goal to save their lives. Over 5- 1 v 1 opportunities were missed along with several other easy opportunities in front of the goal.
Even though the team lost most of its games they were very competitive in all but one game. With most of the starting line coming in from the US (possible 9), T&T is poised to take the field against Dominica with a strong starting 11 and a very potent reserve unit. Coach Ron La Forest firmly believes that his reserves has the ability and confidence to take on any team in their age and ability level.
Warrior Nation takes first step.
By: Flex Mohammed.
The Warrior Nation headed by President Nigel Myers is taking its first step into assisting the less and unfortunate football youngsters in T&T attend a youth camp hosted by La Founcade Soccer Clinic. The Warrior Nation is currently accepting donations to help sponsor some youths at this camp. The camp is limited to 300 youths and the deadline for submitting applications is April 11th. We have collected $158 USD so far, which is enough to sponsor 3 youths.
CLICK HERE if you would like to contribute to this effort.
The camp is said to have three youth coaches from Italian club Inter Milan will be in Trinidad for the Sportworld Inter Milan Easter Football camp which is being held in conjunction with the La Foucade Soccer Clinic from April 18-22 at the St Mary's College ground, St Clair. The camp promises to be quite exciting with Inter youth coaches Mirco Gubelini, Alberto Giacomini and Alessio Caciato being brought down by sponsors Sportworld. The camp runs from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. daily and caters for children between ages 5 - 18. Registration for the camp is $325 and organisers will give 40 underprivileged children free entry. Persons interested in taking part in the camp can do so by contacting the organisers at 1-868-680-0900.
More news on the Warrior Nation as Executive advisor Inshan "Flex" Mohammed has pledged to donate a fair share of proceeds from the Socawarriors.net website, once operational expenses have been met, to the Warrior Nation website. Warrior Nation members can also purchase Ato's "Boldon in Bahrain" DVD for a price of $15 plus shipping. The Warrior Nation logo together with a quote attributed to www.socawarriors.net and www.thewarriornation.com will be on the cover of the DVD.
The Warrior Nation Family Day came off successfully in T&T, albeit not as huge as everybody would've liked. Lessons were learnt so as to what not to do and also improvements for the next event. Congrats to Gilbert O' Connor aka Oconnorg, Brian "Patriot" Springer, Andre Samuel, "Touches" and the rest of the locally based crew for the well intentioned effort from the rest of us. Oconnorg was on "Total Football" last week for 2 mins. Feliziano is still trying to get the clip. Some people signed up after seeing him on TV. Canadian based Warrior Nation representative Gino McKoy aka Trini Infinite was also successful in his Warrior Nation Launch on March 25th in Canada, up next for the Warrior Nation "The CAC Games", see you there.