COACH Bertille St Clair took personal control of organising Trinidad and Tobago's defence and midfield in yesterday's final training session ahead of today's all-important 4.30 p.m. meeting with Costa Rica in a World Cup qualifier at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Port of Spain.
While the T&T cadet band rendered a sweet version of Shurwayne Winchester's "Dead or Alive 2005", St Clair supervised his team, whose efforts may very well go down in flames should they fail to pick up points at home today after defeats at the hands of the United States and Guatemala in their previous outings.
St Clair divided his squad into three units yesterday-defensive, midfield and offensive-and he worked with the defensive line-up, before the midfield team of new captain Dwight Yorke, Angus Eve, Silvio Spann and Leslie Fitzpatrick joined the structure.
At the back, St Clair tried both the lanky Dennis Lawrence and Anton Pierre at the stopper position as replacements for injured Glasgow Rangers defender Marvin Andrews, with Lawrence seeming to get the nod.
While Brent Sancho, Atiba Charles and Keyeno Thomas jostled to fill the man-marking positions, at all times Carlos Edwards and Marlon Rojas occupied the flanking defensive positions, indicating that St Clair was opting once more for the 3-5-2 system.
It will be no surprise to see England-based Yorke in the attacking central midfield position after yesterday's session, while both Eve and Spann vied for the defensive midfield roles.
T&T assistant coach Ron La Forest took charge of the attacking unit of Stern John, Kenwyne Jones, Hector Sam and speedy Cornell Glen-the only addition to the squad that was hammered 5-1 by Guatemala last Saturday.
The loss to Guatemala has left the T&T Warriors bottom of the CONCACAF final round standings and looking to pick up their first points today.
Assistant coach David Nakhid said as a result of the latest defeat, the Warriors have had to reassess their approach in several areas before meeting Costa Rica. He was also quite pleased by the response of the players following Saturday's setback and is optimistic about doing well today.
He felt Trinidad and Tobago had sufficient time to put together a good performance against the Central American visitors.
"The onus is on us to have a positive result. Sometime when you lose as heavy as 5-1 it can be a blessing in disguise," said Nakhid, adding they had also worked hard to be ready for Costa Rica.
"It's not as though we have just come from Guatemala and begun planning for Costa Rica with just two days to go. We have been planning what we have to do against Costa Rica some time now," he pointed out.
The Costa Rican squad arrived in Trinidad at 5 p.m. on Easter Monday. They had a morning session yesterday and were also due to have another at the Stadium last night.
Teams:
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO-Shaka Hislop, Clayton Ince, Marlon Rojas, Nigel Henry, Dennis Lawrence, Brent Sancho, Atiba Charles, Anton Pierre, Keyeno Thomas, Leslie Fitzpatrick, Angus Eve, Carlos Edwards, Silvio Spann, Stern John, Dwight Yorke, Nigel Pierre, Hector Sam, Kenwyne Jones, Cornell Glen
COSTA RICA-Christian Badilla, Carlos Castro, Walter Centeno. Pablo Chinchilla, Leonardo Gonzalez, Carlos Hernandez, Andy Herron, Luis Marin, Gilberto Martiniez, Alvaro Mesen, Roy Myrie Jose Porras, Oscar Rojas, Geiner Segura, Douglas Sequeira, Alonso Solis, Michael Umana, Harold Wallace, Paulo Wanchope, Whayne Wilson