Perhaps, it is just me. Perhaps, I am just a mere traditionalist, patrolling a lonely, windy furrow. Perhaps, I am not accustomed to accepting defeat with a smile and a hearty laugh.
What made this interesting was that it started at around 11 pm in downtown Nashville and finished at approximately 2:30 am with several T&T players who waltzed their way on the Tennessee Titan football service previously, now wining and jamming with their T&T supporters.
So why, one may ask, should the players be concerned about their performers on Wednesday night? Their fans are happy enough to dance and drink the night away with them. Some fans even purchased drinks for players as a means of appreciation as if the players were not erratic enough on the field that night. Is it any wonder then, why we can lose a match and still be joyous rather than sullen and reflective as a people.
Some say the organisers of this past game/lime/dance saw an opportunity and exploited it. Others claim the organisers understood the T&T psyche better than our footballers, and gave the fans both entertainment and merriment at the same time. I was confronted by several justifiable irate fans, who expressed their disappointment. Some remarked that the T&T players in their eagerness to leave the playing service, forgot to salute the T&T supporters, who travelled from New York, Miami, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.
Most were saying they would consider boycotting the team in the future if Maturana and his whipping boy Stern John remain part of the squad.
Perhaps, it is time again for Jack Warner to intervene, as our campaign seemed to have stuttered to a halt. With seven months to go, we are in last place in a six-team group. Our next two matches are in June against Costa Rica at home and then we travel to Mexico for a June 10 encounter. These are tough matches and if we do not obtain at least three points, we can forget South Africa.
Warner has always known the importance of timing and despite his current political pressure this dilemma must take priority. He must act now. Why not try Zoran Vranes, the under-20 coach as an interim measure. As for me, I find myself with a tooth ache. I am not certain, if I just need a filling, an extraction or worse yet a root canal. But I am certain of one thing, there is one dentist from Columbia, I will not trust to get even that simple prognosis right. Has anyone seen Francisco Maturana?