TRINIDAD and Tobago kick-start their Copa Caribe title defence from 8 p.m. tonight at the newly opened Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima where the locals take on Barbados in the second match of a doubleheader.
The game follows a match-up between former Caribbean Cup winners Jamaica and Martinique.
There is plenty for national senior team coach Ian Porterfield, who recently revealed his appreciation for statistics, to savour about today’s 2001 Copa Caribe clash.
For football fans who turn out to support the “Soca Warriors”, it will be their first taste of senior international football in Arima since April 6, 1997 when a youthful T&T team lost 3-2 to Grenada at the Municipal Stadium.
Arima’s last taste of competitive action was three years earlier during the 1994 Shell Cup tournament when a T&T squad led by midfielder David Nakhid visited the borough for a group match.
Concacaf president and Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) special adviser Jack Warner will remember today as a momentous occasion for the unveiling of the Larry Gomes Stadium—one of the designated venues for the 2001 Under-17 World Cup.
For Porterfield, though, it will be a chance at bagging his first major title since his appointment on March 3, 2000 in the revamped regional tournament.
The decision by the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) to change the tournament from an annual to a bi-annual one is likely to add prestige to the games while the winner and runner-up have the incentive of automatic berths in the 2002 Concacaf Gold Cup.
Porterfield will fancy his chances at becoming the third foreign coach to bring home a regional title following German Bernard Scholl (1992) and Yugoslav Zoran Vranes (1995 and 1996).
The other successful local coaches were Everald “Gally” Cummings (1989 and 1984) and Bertille St Clair (1997 and 1999).
None save Vranes’s 1996 squad were as formidable on paper as Porterfield’s.
Manchester United striker Dwight Yorke has still not ended his self-imposed exile from the Caribbean Cup which dates back to an unfortunate injury he sustained during the 1993 tournament.
Team captain Russell Latapy—who was axed by Scottish Premier League club Hibernian (See Page 54)—is also out as are West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop, Bristol Rovers hardman Ronnie Maugé and Reading utility player Anthony Rougier.
However, Porterfield should have enough quality on tap with players like the Joe Public duo of Arnold Dwarika and Angus Eve nearing top form while their clubmates Nigel Pierre and Brent Rahim seem to be improving with every match.
Clayton Ince, the Caribbean’s best goalkeeper for the past three tournaments, will start in goal, covered by the towering defensive pair of lanky Wrexham stopper Dennis Lawrence and Livingston’s Marvin “Dog” Andrews.
So with T&T boasting seven titles from 10 editions of the Cup, Porterfield can be forgiven for feeling confident about his team’s chances of a convincing victory today.
They will be tested by a Barbadian team whose level has dropped some way since their heroics in the 2002 World Cup qualifying series.
The “Bajan Rockets” stole headlines last year with a remarkable run of World Cup qualifying results which saw them eliminate Cuba and edge Costa Rica 2-1 at home. From there, though, it was all downhill and, by their last two qualifying games, coach Horace Beccles revealed, there was an average of just nine players attending training sessions.
Barbados only squeezed into the Copa Caribe finals as the best second-placed team behind Suriname and will be without more than half of the team that represented them in the World Cup tournament.
Veteran goalkeeper Horace Stoute, who only recently rejoined the team, Bristol City midfielder Gregory “Lalu” Goodridge and talented sweeper Wayne Sobers represent the core of the Rockets.
The Bajan offence will almost certainly center around their 2000 Player of the Year Llewellyn Riley, an energetic but uncomplicated striker.
Still it is the Warriors’ northern rivals, Jamaica, who will get first turn at the Larry Gomes Stadium.
With former Trinidad and Tobago coach Clovis D’Oliviera at the helm, the “Reggae Boyz” will be eager to familiarise themselves with the local surfaces.
They will relish an opportunity to regain the regional title they won in 1998 at Port of Spain. But they will be mindful of the significantly higher stakes involved in the return World Cup qualifying leg game against the “Warriors” on July 1.
They should find the Martiniquans, one of only three successful teams in this tourney, to be a tenacious mixture of physique and skill.