What a wonderful way it would have been to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this country’s football history with all the world’s football dignitaries attending our second World Cup qualifying match, the first being against Cuba, the setting was ripe for a victory for the Soca Warriors.
Being a fan as well, I find it interesting to enjoy the match immensely when there are efforts on both sides to bring the better result in each other’s corner.
Having seen these two teams play to a 1-1 draw in Boston last year, I felt it necessary to assume that the presence of the experienced players in this encounter, while playing at home, must have been swinging the pendulum in favour of the Soca Warriors.
Nevertheless, I have learnt the art of enjoying my football by simply trying to understand what are the pictures which are being portrayed by both teams. That approach keeps me honest and capable of appreciating the good aspects and weak portrayals of both teams.
Maybe for the first time in the past few years, I got the feeling that the quality of the game in T&T had reached an upward proportion which now appears as organised as some of the European countries which grace out TV screens literally every day.
I make this point after watching three World Cup qualifiers in Europe on the same day, Sunday, but before the Hasely Crawford drama.
My observation was that the fluidity of the Europeans no longer separated itself from what the Guatemalans and Soca Warriors had done. So my first comment to myself was that there is something worthwhile watching here.
Quite naturally, my focus deepened towards Dwight Yorke and his men. It was a team with an age balance and experience mixed with youth, a possible recipe for suitability in any form of strategy and certainly when the state of the game needed brains more than braun.
While I have reservations starting with just one striker, the first 15 minutes introduced me to Maturana’s plan whereby Carlos Edwards and Keon Daniel had to chip into the middle at opportune moments, something which they both handled extremely well in the early stages.
Unfortunately, the process failed only because of simple human errors by both Edwards and Cornell Glen, when there was more than 50 percent chances to climax good movements created as a result of the pattern of play.
My second observation was about Yorke, the 38-year-old mastermind, whose selection must have been based upon his strong leadership quality and his choice passes in the final third of the field.
It was joyful to see how he picked out Edwards and Daniel among the regular 12 players who were running for space ahead of him. It was a master at work. Unfortunately, Avery John and Clyde Leon did not undertake Dwight’s defensive duty and chose moving too much into attack. The result was that the former Manchester United striker saw his role as recovering for defenders. This was not his bag and he was embarrassed for speed by the quickfooted Guatemalans who flew up the right wing with Yorke as an onlooker. The endline was that physical fatigue came earlier than expected for Yorke and his original duties seemed to have lessened considerably.
I did not expect him to play the entire game, especially as he had not been playing in matches for sometime. However, his contribution in two thirds of the game was satisfactory.
Had the attacking force scored any of the goals they created early, my next comment would not have been needed.
Guatemala looked at the clean scoresheet at halftime and decided that they actually had a chance to take full points with some more hard work.
Their ambition to try moving forward more than in the first period, backfired badly and they were lucky to have conceded only one goal. It could have been another one at least.
Then fortune continued to fancy the Warriors as the Guatemalan keeper spent five and a half minutes to have his replacement enter the field, which should have brought a yellow card for the new keeper and a stern warning for the coach on the bench.
But Yorke was able to get a much needed rest and pick up where he left off. Up to that point, I was pleased with the home team and felt that this was a team on the improve. But when there was two minutes of regular time and five of injury time left, there was need for someone to add some leg strength and energy to the game for Yorke. None was available, because Maturana had used them all up. I saw that move as an error of judgement regarding the use of substitute players.
One sub should have been kept for Yorke, depending on his physical capability in the later stages. This was one of the times and we shall never know to what effect it had on the game.
Some claimed complacency as the cause of Guatemala’s goal. I blamed the entire team for not understanding the value of playing the ball in the opponents half of the field and pressurising them to defend desperately when you have a narrow lead. It takes about 30 seconds to build up play in any organised form from one goal to the other, and much longer when they are pressured. We did the opposite and eventually gave away a free kick within reach of our goal. Some saw the effort by Yorke as missing the ball which passed near his left footed on its way to goal. I saw a bunch of defenders who did not see the importance of retreating to the six yard line in order to eliminate any chance of the kick falling behind their back without the keeper catching it.
We paid for the mistake and lost two points. However, my mark for the performance will be a plus for their cohesion and ball possession, their well shaped defense and Dennis Lawrence’s timely trips to intercept some of the dangerous Guatemalan moves to our goal. We must now learn to think for the entire 90 minutes and work twice as hard for the final 10 minutes. That is when the opponent is also tired and must not be allowed any rest period. Courage must bring us the result next time out.
The Soca Warriors play the United States today in their third World Cup qaulifier in the US.