So Trinidad and Tobago have beaten Bermuda in Hamilton by exactly the two goals required, avoiding the ignominy of elimination in the first qualifying round of a World Cup campaign. But struggle as the team did to scrape a 3-2 aggregate win over opponents who have long been physically and technically inferior, the public's celebrations were muted - although Gary Hunt and his Ministry did their best at the airport to suggest we had conquered Everest. There can be no denying that something is amiss; a country that won much admiration on its World Cup Finals debut in 2006 barely escaped a mere two years later crashing out at the feet of perennial minnows. It gives cause to wonder what has been done in the interim to build on that unprecedented success. In the quest for answers, it is, I think, useful to draw on six previous campaigns to see if there is a pattern. Maybe we shall find enough evidence there to suggest that the interests of individuals continue to be put before those of the national team, creating more problems for our players than their on-field opponents.
For starters, the masses "support" the game when it suits them. The presence of fans is as important as the revenue from their attendances. SUpport for domestic football, strong up to the late 80's practically evaporated with modern-day distractions, notably Cable TV and round-the-clock live coverage of the European leagues. The problem, once localised in the sense that it affected only domestic football, has long since escalated to the national team. Ron La Forest, commenting on the first leg shocker, lamented the failure of the crowd to get behind the team - not that the couple thousand fans crammed into the Marvin Lee Stadium constitutes the kind of crowd to which the former national striker would have been used.
In T&T, loyalty is not directed to our players. In 2006 the "fans" disappeared after the big games against Mexico and Bahrain, and the drinking and wining jaunt in Germany. And during the two Pro League seasons that have followed they have been conspicuous by their continued absence. But before the Centennial Friendly, they paid as much as $1,200 in some cases to grab up every available ticket (not quite, but that's another story!) In two days and then crammed into the Crawford Stadium to oooh and aaah at every English manoeuvre. To see David Beckham, Peter Crouch and other English reserves practise, they climbed over one another and then ran after the team bus to catch a fleeting glimpse of them. Post-match, they rushed to the watering holes along the Western Main Road and Ariapita Avenue to argue animatedly over whose club representantives ( Chelsea or Man. U) had performed better on the day.
In T&T, the people with spending power come to watch opponents; remember, all matches at the 2001 FIFA Under 17 Championships were sold out, even though T&T bowed out in the opening round. Lowly Bermuda had no stars to adore, which is perhaps why Jack Warner knew he could call Minister Hunt's bluff and play the game at the tiny Marvin Lee. Only a handful of die-hards, Jack knew, the true supporters of national football, would be on hand anyway.
An even more crippling problem is player selection. In T&T, national coaches seldom have wielded the power to decide who plays but are held responsible for the results. Haphazard in the best of times, selection became a nightmare last year, following the as-yet-officially-unacknowledged but nonethless very real blacklisting of players as a consequence of the dispute over World Cup bonuses. The dilemma it created for Wim Rijsbergen, a foreign coach battling to build a successful unit out of already limited resources, ultimately cost him his job, never mind the reasons given. And while the Dutchman's sacking translated into opportunity for individuals, the team and, by extension the country, were always going to lose.
For one, some names shortlisted on the arrival of his successor, Francisco Maturana did not appear to make sense. Following a tame surrender to England, a team with which a full-strength T&T had stood toe-to-toe for 84 minutes in Germany, Lasana Liburd, writing in the "Adrenalin" supplement of the Trinidad and Tobago Express, raised pertinent questions. It is all well and good to draft in potential talent when building for the future, he argued. But with the 2010 qualfying campaign upon us, who in his right mind could think that the time is right for shortlisting for national duty players who are not even sure startes for their Pro League Clubs? And what might it do to the psyche of other aspirants given the obviously close relationship between Maturana, Anton Corneal and the Assistant Coach's father, Alvin,if one criterion for selection appeared to be-whether it was so or not-close links to Alcons, the organisation that gets its name from the ex-national footballer?
To be fair, it is not simply the surge of relative novices that set off alarm bells; the name of one selectee, anything but a newcomer,stirred memories for me.
Having been invited by Warner to appear in the Centennial Match, both Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy had declined. It led to a clarification (if that is what it was) from Maturana who had initially welcomed Yorke's participation. "This is not an exhibition match", he declared. "I have a lot of respect for Yorke and Latapy but we are working towards the next World Cup." But to everyone's surprise, at the final session just 24 hours before the June 1 kick off, Yorke turned up. To no one's surprise, the former national captain who had remained inactive since the close of the English season was immediately inked into the team list. Despite having missed all but the last training session, the 36 year old played during the second half and then reaffirmed that he was only acceding to Warner's request to say goodbye one last time to his fans. In your face, Francisco Floormat-urana!
But lest anyone conclude that I have something personal against Yorke, let me remind all that the erstwhile Manchester United standout has himself said publicly that he will not play any part in the bid to reach the 2010 finals. Yet his appearance on June 1 denied a real chance to several youngsters who represent the future of T&T football, rookies who could have benefited immensely from a mere ten minutes on the field against the Englishmen. One cannot but think that Maturana's "we are working towards the next World Cup" notwithstanding, Yorke's cameo was no more or no less than a marketing gimmick.
But this was deja vu. Back in 2004, Yorke had declined Bertille St. Clair's entreaty to help the bid for Germany. Then in July of that year, I would have lost my house on a wager that Yorke was in the squad for T&T's friendly against Northern Ireland in Bacolet because there was no "Yorke D" on the official list in my possession. No Yorke D, participated in the warm-up, no Yorke D. was in the line-up during the playing of the national anthem. Then in the interval, Yorke appeared in gear on the field, joked with the Irish reserves and played the entire second half. After that, he was gone again only to rejoin the squad months later as captain.
Rewind further to July 1992. T&T using the four-four-two formation, are running amok at the Shell Caribbean Cup finals in Port of Spain. Yorke on vacation from Aston Villa, is asked to join the team for the semis; the squad has been named one player short, in the event that he agrees to play. The attempt at secrecy, discretion if you prefer, collapses when the Raymond Tim Kee Agency provides insurance cover for Yorke D. who plays the semi-final against Cuba. Previewing the final on TTT's Panorama, I suggest that the sacrifice of Hutson Charles for Yorke was a tactical error which would cost T&T dear if Jamaica decide to use a man-marker on Yorke. Wrong!
Yorke is not man-marked, Jamaica score first but T&T win 3-1. In the World Cup qualifier the following Sunday, however, that changes. The "Reggae Boyz" assign Mark "Hagler" Wilson to police Yorke and Leonson Lewis is left to battle alone up front as his striking partner is almost non-existent. The nippy Clint Marcelle, who has partnered Lewis with great success in the earlier rounds, labours in the mud at the right of midfield and T&T go under 2-1. Ironically, the tireless Charles, who has had to make way for Yorke, comes off the bench to net the lone T&T item.
Presumably on the advice (whim?) of the TTFF Special Advisor, there is a change of coach before the return leg in Kingston weeks later. Brazil's Clovis D'Oliviera supplants Kenny Joseph and the 4-4-2 formation gives way to the 3-5-2. Disaster follows. A header misjudged almost on half line by giant defender Shawn Boney, drafted in by the new management, allows Paul "Tegat" Davis to run onto the loose ball. His low shot lands in the far corner of Michael Maurice's net. Though Brian Haynes, another draft, later heads in Latapy's cross, the game ends one each. Jamaica advance 3-2 on aggregate and two years after missing the finals by one point, a "Strike Squad" now approaching its peak takes its leave in the second round.
Maybe it's a South American thing but it has to be remarked that 16 years after D'Oliviera, Maturana replaced Rijsbergen, adopted the 3-5-2 against Bermuda and earned exactly the same 2-1 defeat. This time thankfully, T&T were able to save themselves in the away leg.
We should not underestimate the effects of sudden and significant change on a team. For three years, Europeans had handled the national squad, first Beenhakker, then Rijsbergen, who eventually got the short end of the stick. While the public's expectations were great after the German adventure, Rijsbergen found himself with an empty shelf, a team in name only, all the key players unofficially banned. Even so, he scraped together a young squad that ran second to Haiti at the DigiCel Caribbean Finals. This squad was missing Shaka Hislop, Jack, Clayton Ince, Dennis Lawrence, Cyd Gray, Brent Sancho, Marvin Andrews, Chris Brichall, Aurtis Whitley, Stern John, Kenwyne Jones and Yorke and Latapy. Who could reasonably expect the replacement squad, limited in experience as in ability, to prevail against opponents of even greater quality at the Gold Cup in the United States?
With World Cup qualifying just months away, the pressure was on for an end to the impasse over the bonus payments; Rijsbergen was the sacrificial lamb. After a three year diet of European style coaching, there was little time to adjust to the new South American approach but the shortcomings were not manifest in the early, inconclusive friendlies against mediocre opposition. In the very first match that mattered, however, even with the European-based pros back in the squad they were glaringly obvious. Indeed to tell the whole truth, the pros might well have been more challenged in the situation than the home-based players, assuming of course that the pros would have been open to "coaching"
A country naturally blessed with forwards of skill, movement and speed is now caught in uncertainty. Where once T&T relied on speedy skillful artisits - Alvin Corneal, Warren Archibald, Sammy Llewellyn, La Forest, Leo "Twinkletoes" Brewster, Jerren Nixon, Lewis and Marcelle - our fate now depends on the feet of often solitary, almost always static goal poachers. Stern John, Jason Scotland and Jones, like Yorke before them, have had to play to the tune of their pipers, alone up front, posting back to goal and laying off and scavenging inside the box. Meanwhile, our midfielders back at home in the Pro League operate in the traditional way, playing the ball for the likes of Hayden Tinto, Kendall Jagdeosingh and Jerol Forbes to chase. Come international games, they are expected to instantly connect with a different breed, strikers who have had to sacrifice speed and add pounds in the gym to withstand the battering of defenders inside the box. That is not our natural game; small wonder, then, that Stern John blamed his sub-par performance after the England friendly on "lack of service" Note that European teams these days are desperate for players with speed. Many European national teams feature strikers of Brazilian and African origin while in 2006, to cite only two examples, England drafted in the greenhorn Theo Walcott and Germany went with Donor.
Another emerging pattern is the clear predilection for the foreign pros. When he was playing in the MLS, Cornell Glen's place was rarely in doubt; now, as he struggles to recover from the injury he suffered while playing for his country, Glen has not even been kept in the squad as incentive to regain full fitness. Selection appears to be based on rank, the division in which your club plays and the money you earn. Against England, Jones (K) (Premier League) injured wrist and all, started alongside the Championship Division's John (S). And even though he was blacklisted from national team duty at the time, the TTFF even named Jones as its Player of the Year in 2007!
Jones' injury put the Dutch First Division Feyenoord Rotterdam's Darryl Roberts next in the pecking order. After the England flop, Scotland, League One's top scorer, was drafted in. It's a fairly safe bet that Collin Samuel, rebuilding in the Scottish lower divisions, will be next. As for the locals, they are no more than window dressing. Like the West Indies fielding a bowling attack comprising Jerome Taylor, Fidel Edwards, Daren Powell, Dwayne Bravo and Sammy in a Test, there is but one dimension to the national team's attack; dribbling and taking on defenders are now taboo.
How ironic then that a European better appreciated our natural assets. At the Caribbean Finals, Rijsbergen converted Jabloteh's erstwhile central midfielder Kerry Baptiste into an old-fashioned winger. Baptiste's runs and crosses were one of the revelations of the tournament. In the new dispensation, he has fallen out of favor as has one of the Pro League's smartest and most outstanding midfielders, Jabloteh's Trent Noel, both collateral damage in the fallout after the Dutchman's departure.
And the questions remain. Why, for instance, require Keon Daniel, always a forward-looking attacker in midfield, to fall back to mark and do the tackling required of a wide midfielder in a 3-5-2 formation? In the wake of the surrender to England and the narrow escape to Bermuda, some blamed the blacklist and Warner, others fingered the coach and still others laid the blame on the wrangle between Minister Hunt and the TTFF Special Advisor. Clearly, when the team disappoints, the tendency is to focus on a single problem. The problem, I submit may be multi-faceted, having in common a number of factors all of which may be linked to the ambitions of individuals. Perhaps my concerns will be put to rest; perhaps the technical staff will get things right by the next time around. But there are less than three months left to get it right. Bermuda are not in the same league as Guatemala and the USA, to say nothing of Mexico and Costa Rica, if we survive. In case anyone has forgotten, for this time around there's no half a loaf repechage for Concacaf. If you are not in the top three, it's sayonara until 2014.
