On Carnival Thursday, we all awoke to see two very interesting headlines in our daily newspapers relating to football in T&T Dwight Yorke is back and Bring back David Nakhid.
Both headlines ignited a lot of discussion among Trinidadians and Tobagonians all around the world, as to whether or not football in T&T is heading in the right direction and that ultimately led to this response.
The individuals debating this topic are all supporters of our national teams, some of them former national players whose only desire is to see T&T participate at the highest level in football.
But that desire raises the question: Have the people responsible for football in T&T done everything possible over the last four years to ensure our qualification for the 2006 World Cup?
As I read both articles, it became apparent that the recent performance of the national team has caused panic among the T&T coaching staff. Hence the knee-jerk reaction of adding the individuals in question to the roster without considering the impact it would have both short and long term on the players who will be sacrificed, but more importantly the impact it would have on the game itself.
As Dwight Yorke is allowed to return, play and even be captain, what message would that send to our young players as it relates to what is acceptable behaviour?
While these comments are not intended to pass judgment on David Nakhid or Dwight, it is difficult for one to discern why it is that the coaching staff would introduce both players as members of the team six days before such an important match (with Dwight only being available from five days before).
It must also be mentioned that both individuals have not been playing at that level for more than six months. It leaves one to question whether or not we would be having this discussion if the teams performance in the Digicel Cup and more recently against Haiti were up to par.
This introduction can only serve to do more harm than good, because of the timing and the fact that both players may not even be close to the type of fitness required to compete successfully at this level.
One immediate consequence was the addition of a third friendly against Haiti, which will conclude less than 72 hours before such an important match apparently to accommodate those individuals at the expense of the entire team.
Our opponent, the US, started preparing for this match four years ago, hence the reason they would most likely earn three points from the game. For those of you who do not like the previous statement the truth is often painful.
To put it in context, the T&T Under-20 team participated recently in the youth World Championships qualifiers and lost 6-1 to the United States and subsequently lost the other two matches to Costa Rica and Panama.
In preparation for that tournament the United States played more than 20 friendly internationals against teams from around the globe, including South America and Europe.
Our national team, in preparation for the same tournament, played a couple of matches against Cuba, and a couple against youth teams here in Trinidad.
I mention this only to highlight that the problem would not be solved by desperately introducing David and/or Dwight at this critical juncture, but a more thorough look at our culture and how it is affecting our ability to compete successfully in top flight football, together with working on a serious long term plan starting with the development of young players.
Currently our young players are being shipped to countries such as England, Scotland, Wales, America and Japan to play professional football. None of the countries mentioned above have enjoyed success in recent history, yet we continue to send our young players to those countries. Now, who benefits from this?
Some would argue that the agents luring these guys off to play second and third division football in some of the countries mentioned above are the sole beneficiaries.
As a country, are we benefiting from this? Are our players being properly developed as they ply their trade in some of the countries mentioned above, are they being equipped with the tools that allows them to return and compete for this country successfully?
I think we all know the answer to that, we have more players today than any other time in our history playing professional football overseas and we are unable to establish ourselves as a force to be reckoned with in international football.
In my humble opinion, we have two areas in which we need to focus on inorder to develop our young talent so that we can start qualifying for the youth World Cups, which would serve as a foundation for the senior team to qualify for the WC eventually.
First, we need to invest hard dollars in the development of football (Mr. Warner cannot do it alone), and we need to have our young talent play professionally in countries such as Argentina and Brazil so that they can truly learn the game of football and develop a culture about the game that is conducive to winning second and third division in England and Scotland for example, is not the same as second and third division in Brazil and/or Argentina.
Finally, it was a little disconcerting to read in one of the articles mentioned above, again six days before such an important game, the following comparison made between David and the existing players. When I saw David play recently his touch was very clean much cleaner than any of the others. Nakhid had matched and surpassed all of the midfielders in the current squad.
The previous comments could serve as a de-motivator to a team that appears to be trying their utmost best under what seems to be difficult circumstances. Most of us really hope that we can qualify for the 2006 WC; however, my fear is that if we do qualify, we would begin to believe that we had it right all the time.
NOTE: The above article was written prior to T&Ts opening World Cup final round Concacaf qualifier against the United States which the Soca warriors lost 1-2.