Fifteen years to the day, today, the whole of Trinidad and Tobago went into mourning when the United States beat Trinidad and Tobago in a climatic match to decide which of the two would go forward to the World Cup Finals in Italy.
Some 40,000 fans crammed the National Stadium and
tens of thousands more listened on radio, willing the team to secure
the draw that would fulfill the country's World Cup dream, a dream that
had haunted the population from at least as far back in 1973 when the
national team was cheated out of a place in the finals by a crooked
referee in the pay of duplicitous Haitians.
It was not to be. A single goal scored in the most non-threatening of circumstances was enough to put paid to our hopes and far from being a day of national celebration, November 19, 1989, was to go down as a day of national disappointment leaving red-shirted citizens, as one foreign newspaper out it, "all dressed up with nowhere to go".
Since, then, of course, there have been other World Cup excursions none of which has ever seen us getting as close as in 1973 and, again, in 1989. Two nights ago, Trinidad and Tobago defeated St Vincent to secure a place in the second round of the competition, the only Caribbean country to do so, Jamaica having been eliminated on the very night.
If that achievement, and achievement it is whatever the perceived weakness of the opposition in the relevant group, has not excited expectations it is because of the lacklustre nature of the first round campaign, not the least being the last, decisive victory.
To tell the truth, the Vincentians for all their promise to "turn on the heat" were always going to be up against it since their challenge was to defeat Trinidad and Tobago in their own backyard by three clear goals. In the event, the national team made very heavy weather of the victory to the point where fans could be excused for lowering their expectations in the face of the far more difficult second round.
That, however, would be the wrong attitude to take since, in more ways than one, the journey now starts. Instead of pandering to the predilection to premature surrender Trinidad and Tobago must determine to put its best foot forward and leave nothing to chance as it seeks, finally, to reach that enduring football goal.
Trinidad and Tobago here does not refer simply to the players and the management although, obviously, they will have a key role to play. But just as important if we are finally to unlock the process, is the support needed from government, private enterprise and the population at large. This is not a time for playing politics nor is it a time for rehashing old recriminations. We cannot live forever in the football hurts of the past or we might as well forget playing at this level and simply content ourselves with playing domestic football.
On the eve of the November 19, 1989 disaster an American player publicly expressed his team's puzzlement that a country as small as Trinidad and Tobago could produce such fine footballers. Look at some of the rosters of well-known foreign clubs and the lesson to be learned is that this still continues to be true. The question is, however, whether we can summon the resources of discipline, character, ability, finance and focus to, once and for all, bring it all together.