Soca Warriors News Room.

03-Jun-2008.

Yorke emotional after cameo.
By: Joel Bailey (Newsday).

Dwight Yorke, former national football captain and ace striker, admitted that he felt “a little bit emotional” after Sunday’s football friendly match between Trinidad and Tobago and England at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo.

England prevailed 3-0 in the match, which was entitled “Score to Settle”.

The 36-year-old, who replaced fellow midfielder Khaleem Hyland in the 76th minute, pointed out, “Trinidad and Tobago football has given me a lot and I’m thankful for the opportunity to play for my country on so many occasions.

“As much as the (2006) World Cup was a fitting (moment) to retire, I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to have one more go, playing against England,” said Yorke, who has spent most of his club career with English Premiership teams Aston Villa, Manchester United, Blackburn and Birmingham City and now Sunderland. “I had my time and I totally enjoyed it and I’m grateful for that.”

This was only the second meeting of both teams, after England prevailed 2-0 in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Yorke made it clear that the development of the national team under coach Francisco Maturana was more important than the result of Sunday’s game.

“I don’t think that the result was very important,” said Yorke, “in the sense that people would have loved to (get) the revenge but you have to understand it’s not the same (TT) team.

He continued, “with the team preparing for the World Cup campaign ahead of them, that has to be (the) number one priority.”

Yorke, captain Aurtis Whitley, striker Stern John, defender Dennis Lawrence and goalkeeper Clayton Ince were the only players on the national team who are 30 years and over.

Concerning the youthful bunch of TT players, Yorke said, “They’ve seen the best players in the world. They get to play against the best players in the world and realise what it takes to be one of the top players.

“Hopefully, this game would put them in good stead, (make them) realise that they need to continue to work hard,” he added.

“They can’t take their foot off the pedal for one moment, thinking that they’ve reached the destiny because you see how the England team goes about things and they do things properly. And we need to do that on a consistent basis.”

David Beckham, who wore the captain’s armband for England and was Yorke’s teammate at Manchester, described the TT outfit as “a very good team.

“They’ve got some very good players, very strong players,” he continued. “We expected a tough game and I think it was. They worked us hard.

The 33-year-old Beckham, who currently plays for Los Angeles Galaxy in the American MLS, stated, “ I think, when you’ve got the quality of players that we’ve got, we can beat many teams.”

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