A Digicel Caribbean Cup in which they surpassed expectations by playing second fiddle to Haiti, was immediately followed by a Central American tour for a bunch of inexperienced Trinidad and Tobago footballers, who might not have 30 internationals among them.
Central America was always a testing ground for Dutch national coach Wim Rijsbergen, who needed to see which of his new players could play at a high international level. Rijsbergen has maintained it is still not time to discard the "old guard" since many of his youngsters are not ready to fill the boots of the likes of Dennis Lawrence, Dwight Yorke, and apparently not even goalkeeper Shaka Hislop.
The Central Americans are ahead of T&T. Panama's new coach has players such as Gabriel Torres, joining a few other older ones like Ricardo Phillip and 28-year-old Anel Canales. A Panamanian delegation, sitting next to me and scouting the Costa Rica game became increasingly uneasy when they saw the easy manner with which the Ticos dismantled the Soca Warriors. Suddenly, their 1-0 victory over T&T three days earlier was not looking so good, going into their CONCACAF Gold Cup qualifier against Costa Rica a week from now.
Panama players have plenty pace and physical strength. Any unfit team meeting them are in trouble!
Costa Rica play a different game, relying on off the ball runs and trickery to wear down opponents. They look a hard team for T&T to dispatch in both the 2007 Gold Cup and later on in our World Cup qualifying campaign.
The Panama game gave a lot of hope following a fighting performance by the Soca Warriors, but against Costa Rica, T&T were like children at a football school. It was chilling reality of how desperate things are.
One player catching the eye though is the very underestimated Kwayne Wiltshire, who though still green, has potential to work with. Cristian Baptiste also didn't look too bad and Kerwin "Hardest" Jemmott certainly has the ability to stay in the team. I pray Jemmott gets serious and do some out-of-training physical work on his own. Jemmott should understand that had he taken his game seriously before, he would have surely have been one of those who became T&T millionaires after the World Cup Finals. Jemmott once played in the Major League Soccer (MLS) and is still young enough to make a difference to the team.
Captain Densil Theobald looked the part, although playing too slow and holding the ball too long, while Osei Telesford and Darryl Roberts have the potential to improve. Gary Glasgow, got little quality service, but his first touch still lets him down in tight spaces. Wim is still undecided which players can make the cut, many, will have to first convince themselves by improving their game.