Somebody, anybody, please tell me what is wrong with the Trinidad and Tobago football team? Date: Saturday 6th September 2008
Location: The National Stadium
Game: qualifiers vs. Guatemala
Upon arriving at the venue, I could feel the excitement brewing. This was our second group game, and we were coming off of a hard fought victory in Cuba. The crowd, though small in numbers were having a time. Beers, women and good weatehr for football. So I paid my $200TT and went and found a nice spot just left of the scoreboard. I was enjoying the atmosphere, rubbing shoulders with 'true Trini supporters', no bandwagonists in sight.
On to the game. The only time that Trinidad looked like a football team was when we were singing the National Anthem. Our midfield was non existent, apart from Dwight Yorke and the young Keon Daniel. Carlos Edwards and Densil Theobald were not even in the shop, their car shut down. Simple passes these two players could not make. Carlos running like a headless chicken kicking away the friggin ball, and Theobald (it is still beyond me as to why this man is on the National Team) showing his lack of technical skill.
In the second half, the introduction of Andre Toussaint and that Wolfe dude injected some talent and life into the squad. Toussaint, to me and i'm sure I could find more than a andful of supporters that day, played himself into any starting eleven, and one felt that a goal for their efforts would soon come. And come it did. Yorke squaring the ball across the top of the box to Daniel, who with his first touch took it away from the oncoming defender and sent a left footed drive into the right 'jepp nest' of the Guatemalan goal. Well for the next 5 minutes I dont remember anything about the game, because I was too busy dodging beer cans that had been thrown into the air by some overly excited fans.
92nd minute, Guatemala has a free kick on the top of the T&T box. All 11 red shirts are in the box, with the majority of the opposing team speckled here and there amongst them. Free kick taken, and it was a poor one by any standard. But as the ball trickled along the ground, a white shirt dummies the ball, and then another dummies the ball and it finds itself in the far corner of the T&T net. F***in' Hell. Marvin how you could let that score.
T&T now has 4 points as opposed to the potential 6, and midweek are going to face America in America. Pressure!!!
Date: Wednesday 10th September 2008
Location: Somewhere in the USA
Game: qualifiers vs. the US
So I rushed home from work this time to watch this game. Still in work clothes, I put on the tele just in time for the National Anthems. NOticeably missing from the lineup was Dwight Yorke (apparently he got a text message summoning him back to Sunderland, steeeuuupppsss!!!), Dennis Lawrence ( who apart from the goal where everyone was at fault, has a generally solid game against Guatemala) and Toussaint (who as I said earlier was one of the standout performers in T&T's last game). Carlos Edwards and Theobald though were most prominant in that starting eleven (WHY???). Now reader, I have no grudge against these players, I just think that if a player is not in form when you need the points and you have a full roster, use it.
So T&T starts off playing a very defensive 4-5-1 against the US' 4-4-2. In the first 8 minutes T&T had no posession, and in the 9th minute the US struck. Some very shaky defending on a corner allowed, Bradley to stand and basically let the ball strike him and fall into an open net. Upon watching the replays we saw that the T&T defence stood back and watched this take place. Not even a shirt tug, nothing. We just gave them a goal.
Okay, small thing. Your boy still optimistic. Shirt now off, cheering loudly. Possession stats, US 99.9%, TT 0.1%. Carlos and Theobald continued their astonishing form from the previous game. Then the second goal came. Now people, even though Trinidad was playing a heap of garbage, I am a firm believer in referees being impartial. Oneyewu clearly handled the ball on the pass the Dempsey, yet the officials turned a blind eye allowed the play to go on and Dempsey finished off the move with a cool finish under Marvin Phillip. Well allyuh know now I sit down and start to flip the channel to watch the Brazil game, but I really wanted to see if our tactically impotent coach would finally decide to make some changes, so onto the second half.
T&T started the brighter of the two teams, we had a good 10 minutes of possession marshalled by Keon Daniel(that Tobagonian real impressing me) and then the collapse again. C. Edwards giving the ball away AGAIN, and the hit us on the counter. Well that was the last of that game that I watched.
I am utterly fedup of our team being made up of people that have a name, rather than people that are either in form or clearly better. I thought that coming off of 1 won and 1 unlucky draw that we would be brimming with confidence. But instead, we went out there and got start struck, coach and all (it's time for him to go. They should ask Mr. Hoyte to coach that side). So I am asking, somebody please just tell me what the problem is? I just want to know so that I would stop foolishly spending my money on this friggin side. I think i need to just stick to Tottenham and Barca. At least in their heartaches they put up a fight.
