Trinidad and Tobago Senior Men’s Team head coach Stephen Hart is preparing for what will be a critical period for the “Soca Warriors” as they enter the 2016 calendar which goes into full swing with the Copa America Centenario qualifier with Haiti on January 8th, 2016. And then of course the focus switches back to the 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign which sees T&T having two important back to back qualifiers against St Vincent/Grenadines on March 25th and 29th and in September at home to Guatemala and away to the United States.
Hart spoke following the team’s final training sessions for the year at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium on Thursday morning, summing up 2016 as one of mixed experiences for him and the team.
“I have mixed emotions about it because we did well at the Gold Cup, we won the group but we had set ourselves a goal of getting in the semi final to give ourselves a chance to be in the final and we didn’t achieve that,” Hart told TTFA Media.
“But I really can’t be disappointed because there were some fantastic individual performances and team performances and that carried over into the World Cup qualifying. We had a good opener against Guatemala and we could have done a little bit better I thought at home to the United States.”
He described the trip to Jordan during which T&T lost 3-0 to its national team prior to the Gold Cup as a turning point for the Kenwyne Jones led team.
“The most crucial part was the Jordan trip. We flew for fourteen hours and we had not even had a full day’s rest and then we had to play the game. But what it did was it brought us closer together and it showed us that regardless of the circumstance, we have to fight to the end and be fully concentrated all the time. I think that had an impact on us psychologically and we’ve grown as a team from that and become more unified.”
The T&T team went onto to beat Haiti 1-0 in a warm up match before topping its Gold Cup group with victories over Guatemala and Cuba and an enthralling 4-4 draw with Mexico which was dubbed as the best Gold Cup game to date in the history of the competition. T&T then defeated Panama 2-1, its first win in Panama City since 2005 followed by the win over Guatemala which was also T&T’s first win in Guatemala since 1989.
Hart pointed out the 4-4 draw with “El Tri” and the win in Guatemala as the stand out moments for him in 2015.
“It’s hard to say. The game against Mexico was special, mainly because of the circumstance, being 2-0 down, coming back and bringing the game to 4-4. But really the game in Guatemala would be it with the way we did it under the circumstances.”
Hart said it would be overly important that the squad of players and staff realizes that there will be further challenges to overcome in what promises to be an eventful 2016.
“I have no illusions that we are going to go through some rough patches. We have to be prepared for that because things are always good when you are doing well. I think the players have to be prepared mentally that when the rough patches come, it’s the time you really have to buckle down and support each other because there is a bit of a break before the next part of the World Cup qualification.
“All of it speaks for itself. I will desperately do everything to qualify for the Copa America. It is a one off opportunity and you cannot put a price on that, the opportunity to play against arguably some of the best teams in the world. And then re-focus and get back into the World Cup qualification because we still have to get a lot of points. We have not achieved anything as yet,” Hart concluded.
The Team will continue its preparations on Saturday evening ahead of the Copa Qualifier against Haiti on January 8th.