National coach Bertille St Clair was back on the field again on Friday with this country’s senior footballers getting ready for the upcoming Digicel Cup preliminary round starting next Wednesday at the Marvin Lee Stadium.
Several of the players, including off the bench winning goalscorer Angus Eve, put their hands up after the match and St Clair too confessed that there is much polishing to be done ahead of the next stage.
“The performance was not what we were hoping for but I guess we can’t play worse after this game,” St Clair told TTFF Media.
“I tried to move around the midfielders to get something clicking and it seemed as though it was the worst thing I ever did in my life,” he added.
With former England manager Graham Taylor likely to intensify his operations with the St Vincent match out of the way and several local technical heads scheduled to meet at the Dr Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence on Saturday to discuss the way forward for the “Soca Warriors”, St Clair is hopeful that the right remedy will be found.
“It is important that we have the team together more often. I am hoping that the players now who will getting the chance can step up. We have a pool of players to work with and then we have some players who will be selected based on their performances. But there will be some changes. We have to go to Germany and we really have to find the right remedy going into the next stage,” St Clair said.
Eve, the captain of the team, was left on the bench for the first time in the current campaign but came up big with his late winner.
“It was important that we won the game but performance wise we were poor. The coach opted for a more defensive style and it backfired because there was no one to pass the ball to in the middle of the park,” Eve said.
He is hopeful that the Digicel Cup can help some of the other players to up their game.
“The selection policy must change because the local players must get a better chance to vie for a spot. Definitely the chance will come for this in the Digicel Cup.”
Young Wake Forest University striker Scott Sealy also voiced his disappointment. It was after he brought some life to the T&T attack, that the game swung in T&T’s favour.
“It was disappointing because we were the ones playing at home but yet we seemed timid out there. They were the team needing to come away with three goals and instead we were the ones playing under pressure and this is something we need to be careful of going into the next round. This was an unacceptable performance at this level especially with the kind of experience in the team,” said Sealy.
St Vincent and the Grenadines coach Zoran Vranes, though saddened by his team’s exit, wished T&T well in the next stage.
“It was a sad end for us but I felt good about having a good performance. Unfortunately it didn’t turn out the way we wanted. But for Trinidad I am happy because this is like my second home and it will be a great achievement for them to go on to the World Cup,” he said.
Meantime, the draw that will decide the schedule of matches for the final round of games between CONCACAF’s six remaining World Cup hopeful’s will take place at the FIFA offices in Zurich, Switzerland on November 30.
Costa Rica, Guatemala, Panama, Mexico, Trinidad & Tobago and the United States will know their respective fixtures (home-and-away dates) for the round which runs from February 9 - October 12, 2005.
Before that, T&T will kick off their Digicel Cup campaign against Puerto Rico on Wednesday from 5pm at the Marvin Lee Stadium with Surinam tackling Grenada at 7pm at the same venue.
Squad For Training:
Goalkeepers:
Daurance Williams (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Jan-Michael Williams (W Connection/TRI), Kevin Graham (Joe Public/TRI).
Defenders:
Avery John (New England Revolution/USA), Anton Pierre (Defence Force/TRI), Atiba Charles (W Connection/TRI), Cyd Gray (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Derek King (Joe Public/TRI), Keyeno Thomas (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Marlon Rojas (Joe Public/TRI).
Midfielders:
Angus Eve (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Aurtis Whitley (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Brent Rahim (Falkirk/SCO), Conrad Smith (Arima Morvant Fire/TRI), Denzil Theobald (Arima Morvant Fire/TRI), Kerry Baptiste (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Leslie Fitzpatrick (Atlanta Silverbacks/USA), Lyndon Andrews (Starworld Strikers/TRI), Michael Celestine (San Juan Jabloteh/TRI), Silvio Spann (W Connection/TRI).
Forwards:
Cornell Glen (MetroStars/USA), Errol McFarlane (Al Nejmeh/LIB), Jerren Nixon (North East Stars/TRI), Odelle Armstrong (Defence Force/TRI).