Eyes on the prize

Having done just enough to get a share of the points against Guatemala on Friday night and confirm a slot among the six teams battling for three confirmed spots for CONCACAF at the next World Cup football finals, Trinidad and Tobago need to play every remaining game of this campaign as if that ticket to Moscow is on the line.

Never one to back away from a realistic assessment of his own team, head coach Stephen Hart’s description of the national side’s effort in the 2-2 draw with the Guatemalans as “sloppy” must be translated as a warning to the players to step up their games, cut out the basic errors and eliminate the mental lapses heading into this duel with the United States at a venue where the Americans are unbeaten in senior internationals.

This will be a test of the real professionalism of the squad, for having already done enough to make it through to the final stage of qualification there is always the fear of a lack of intensity that could result in a performance which may have long-term ramifications on the form and confidence of the squad by the time the hexagonal round proper kicks off on November 11.

Nine weeks may be a long time in football, but it can also be a worryingly short timeframe if considerable damage is inflicted on the psyche of the team by a poor performance against an American squad which will be even more keen to restate its dominance over the twin-island nation before they meet twice more next year when every single point will be vital.

History warns us of the potential pitfalls presented by games like these.

In the campaign for the 2002 finals in Japan and South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago actually topped the semi-final round grouping of qualification ahead of Mexico before finishing dead last in the “Hex” with just five points from ten games.

All was going well in that semi-final phase with the likes of Dwight Yorke, Russell Latapy, Stern John and Angus Eve in top form. Qualification for the final round was sealed with a 4-0 drubbing of Canada at the Hasely Crawford Stadium with two games left to play. That’s when the trouble started.

Five weeks later the squad travelled to Mexico City and played an atrocious game, going four goals behind in the first 30 minutes and eventually enduring a 7-0 drubbing that obliterated the team’s air of invincibility. A 1-0 win in Panama in the last game of that phase did little to restore momentum and it was all downhill after that with poor performances on the pitch compounded by off-field disputes, the firing of head coach Ian Porterfield and the failure of replacement Rene Simoes, the Brazilian who had taken Jamaica to the 1998 finals in France, to impose disciplinary measures on Yorke and Latapy.

We may want to think that such an embarrassing fiasco cannot happen again, especially given the way this team has come together under Hart’s stewardship and Kenwyne Jones’ leadership over the past three years. But doing well in Gold Cups and the occasional friendly international is one thing. As we have experienced many times before, all sorts of strange things happen in a World Cup qualifying campaign because there is so much at stake, so many Johnny-come-latelys who want to have a say or interfere with the process and so many distractions that shift focus from the primary objective of achieving a consistently high level of performance over ten qualifying games.

When it comes to football especially, this country suffers from the inestimable ability to mess things up, even after fulfilling a cherished goal, as we discovered after getting to the World Cup finals in Germany in 2006.

Whatever the issues with the administration of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association, whatever the lapses in organisational systems that could see a return of the problem of masses of fans stalled at the Hasely Crawford Stadium main gate on Friday night, it is up to Hart, Jones and the extended leadership group of the squad to keep their eyes on the prize and all that is required to get their hands on it.

It is a singular focus and unwavering intensity that needs to be turned up a few notches from kickoff at 8.15 p.m. tomorrow. Rest assured Jurgen Klinsmann will have the Americans primed for the contest following the goalless draw in Port of Spain last November. They want to have T&T second-guessing themselves all the way through to that last game of the “Hex” on October 10 next year against...yes, the United States.

No sloppiness anymore, please.