Fail to prepare...and prepare to fail.
TTFF waste momentum.
Several football technocrats, including former national coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier, ex-Strike Squad captain Clayton Morris and defender Brian William, believe that, like Jamaica after the 1998 World Cup, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) did not build on the momentum gained from a credible performance at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
T&T's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa came to an end on Wednesday night when the Soca Warriors were beaten 1-0 by the USA at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, leaving them at the bottom of the CONCACAF group and out of the running with two games left to play.
Instead of putting together a younger team around core World Cup players, T&T football became embroiled in conflict, leading to the regular quick-fix scenario of trying to build on the eve of the 2010 qualifying campaign.
What was agreed upon is that solutions are now needed to be quickly found and the idea of building a team around the current Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 squad, who will compete at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt later this month, seemed palatable to all those spoken to.
"There were too many problems. First it was the blacklist, then the firing of Wim (Rijsbergen). Then the removal of (national coach Francisco) Maturana...and (Russell) Latapy taking over," Charles-Fevrier said, first referring to the conflict between members of the 2006 World Cup team and the TTFF over the allocation of money generated by the Soca Warriors qualifying for Germany, then the sacking of Rijsbergen, who had taken over from Leo Beenhakker, the man who took T&T to the last World Cup.
"Also, the country fought for many years to make a World Cup and finally did it. We had the oldest team at the World Cup four years ago in Germany and I was surprised that we came back this campaign with basically the same team," he declared.
"It's no secret that if we want to compete with the top teams at this level (CONCACAF) we have to compete regularly at the level. I think what should be done now is to start building a new team and regularly expose these players to international football. By the time the 2014 campaign comes around the new players should have played 30-40 internationals. That will take away the fear factor against big teams."
Both Williams and Morris, teammates on the national squad which missed out on qualifying for the 1990 World Cup by just a point, agree that stakeholders must now meet and that the 2014 qualifying campaign should begin soon.
"It is clear preparation is not what it was supposed to be," said Morris, who felt that the blacklist played a significant part in hampering the Soca Warriors' preparations for the 2010 World Cup.
Williams added: "We spent two years doing nothing until the World Cup campaign came around. We had problems such as the blacklist of our World Cup players, which led to other problems with Mr Rijsbergen, who wanted the best available team. After the World Cup there should have been some continuity, but there wasn't."
Williams wanted to congratulate the Soca Warriors on the better attacking and defensive performance against the United States on Wednesday night, following last Saturday's 4-1 defeat away to Honduras.
However, with the 2010 campaign over, he believes that now is the time to plan ahead.
"We should start preparation for 2014 from the next two matches. I am not saying discard the experienced players, but at least start to incorporate some of the young ones into the team. I heard (TTFF special adviser) Mr. (Jack) Warner speak of building the 2014 campaign around the national Under-20s. I think that is a good plan," said Williams, who added that inexperienced national coach Latapy needed a reputable foreign coach to work alongside him.
"We have to sit down as a body, as football technocrats, and plan the future," Morris added. "We need to get all the heads together and plot the future to get the country's football back on track. Let us put differences aside."