The pain of disappointment which this country had undergone following the failure of the national senior football team to qualify for the finals of the South African World Cup, seems to have literally put a stop to an immediate continuity after the final match against Mexico in Mid-October last year.
The past four months have been void of any international team preparation, other than the women’s U-17 programme three-match tournament last week. With the absence of funds and the thought of that daunting task ahead, the T&T Football Federation is aware that a restart of all programmes should have been underway.
Recent announcements indicate that the interest has been rekindled and the wheels of the great game are beginning to roll again.
It would have been interesting if some assessment had been made about the past four years, where reports from all the national teams could be studied and analysed, with a view to recognising the areas of satisfaction and trying to find corrective methods for the technical, tactical, administrative and societal deficiencies which derailed our journey.
There is merit in observing weak areas, if only because the preparation for the future will include the adjustments which need to be done on and off the field. Taking an overview of the past four years will divulge the various aspects of our teams’ performances and help to provide the technocrats with assistance when they sit to produce an organised programme which will hopefully take football towards that silver lining of which we so often dream.
It will be true to say that our U-17 squad faltered along the way to the finals in Nigeria, when they seemed not to cope with the demands which were needed in order to reach a true competitive state against the teams like Mexico, USA and Costa Rica.
The extent of their immaturity prevented the youngsters from elevating their game to match the intensity which existed in the qualifying tournament in Mexico, a shortcoming which was seen even during the period of their successful passage to the Mexico finals.
The U-20 squad was vastly different, not only because the majority of these youngsters had the benefit of experiencing the exposure of the U-17 Fifa World Cup finals in Korea 2007, but because they actually had some five years of preparation.
This lengthy period allowed their physical preparation, their exposure to a huge number of friendly matches, plus the development of a mindset which strengthened their resolve in more ways than the previous youth teams of the past.
The results of that team on the stadium fields of Egypt under the watchful eyes of Vranes Zoran sent a powerful message to the authorities that long term planning in a methodical way has to be the answer to progress.
So where do we go from here, albeit somewhat late? The time is ripe for the various coaching staff members to immediately plot courses for the Central American games, The PanAm games, and the England Olympics in 2012.
No doubt, many of these same players will join the handful whose ability can still command a place in the senior squad, and prepare them for the qualification of the Digicel gold cup tournament. Whatever is done with this group, they must be able to retain the stringent disciplinary traits which they so gloriously demonstrated throughout their careers so far.
The seemingly brightest light in our return to a very productive tomorrow, lies in the hands of the U-23 team whose five year route to the next senior World Cup will take them towards a position of being at the prime age of 25 years old, two world Cup finals under their belts, and a vast amount of international match experience in different countries across the world.
A rigid effort to increase their focus which leads to a dedicated and committed formula, which is supported by serious forms of self discipline, a greater understanding of values like regular sleeping patterns, good eating habits and most of all, an extreme desire to embrace the sport as a vocation and the path to being competent on and off the field of play.
There is need to provide some exposure to advice for the players to understand the key essentials of dealing with finances, contracts, meeting and speaking with the press in an intelligent way, while they indirectly make way for their personalities to embrace a role model image for the benefit of those who will wish to emulate them.
So when we speak of starting the programme, it does not always start with a bunch of players, solely running around with a ball at their feet, but also much work in the classroom which will prepare the mind to understand better the values of what will eventually be taught on the field of play.
There is no magical formula to success. The task is a long and arduous one, whereby all the stakeholders must play their parts well.
Staying clear of cheap criticism and shallow promises will plot a smooth pathway for our success and anyone who fails to cope with their own responsibilities must give way to someone who will meet the requirements needed to have this twin island state become one of the top forty teams in world Football.