There is however now, one last chance, one saviour we can call on, he is the former Trinidad and Tobago captain and the mercurial midfielder David Nakhid who is ready and willing to return in time for the April 25th encounter at the Queens Park Oval against Mexico. It is time for the footballing authorities to forget the past and let bygones be bygones in the interest of Trinidad and Tobago football.
David Nakhid's class has long been evident in Trinidad and Tobago, he has led the team marvellously on all occasions and he commands the respect of all his players because of not only his sublime skill, but also because of his gritty determination and most importantly his class. The public too will regain some momentum with his recall, because he is well loved in his home country.
Trinidad and Tobago in the three games they have played this year against Jamaica (losing 0-1), Guatemala (winning 3-1) and Costa Rica (losing 0-3) have looked out of sorts. This team has no plan and at times no structure, it appears as if the players are either playing in positions for which they are not accustomed (3-5-2 system), or that we are using the wrong players.
If we are to begin to resemble the team that almost won the Gold Cup in 2000, then we need the "engine house", the midfield of the team to be able to function effectively both in his possessive qualities and also distribution. There is only one way to win, we need to give our talented strikers a chance to acquire goals by attacking the goal.
Manchester United's Dwight Yorke has constantly been attacking the opposition goal with his back to the their goalkeeper, that gives him no chance of scoring any goals with two and three defenders around him. It is sad that there seems to be no plans to make Yorke a decoy and let him run off the ball and allow others to get into open positions.
With the presence of Nakhid in the midfield, and with his vision, we can begin to deflect some of the enormous burden off of Russell Lataphy, who has not yet arrived (mentally) for this final phase of the World Cup competition. Lataphy has a lot on his mind and has been inactive for a while because he was not used by Hibernians recently because of a row over his impending transfer. An unsettled footballer, is a liability this country can ill afford and the sooner Lataphy can sort this out the better for the team.
Similarly Dwight Yorke is not the player of old because he has not had enough playing time on the field for Manchester United and that has clearly affected him, he is not as sharp as he would like to be, but it has to be said that man for man, both Yorke and Shaka Hislop have stood head and shoulders above the rest. Yorke's tireless running on and off the ball is unquestioned; he just needs support in terms of quality passing into attacking positions. Many times his options are limited to only use Lataphy in one, two interchanging in and around the area. With Nakhid available, he will have another attacking option.
Ian Portefield has to raise his hand and acknowledge that we need David Nakhid, he has to have the testicular fortitude to tell the powers in Trinidad and Tobago football, that for us to succeed, we need to take every advantage of all of our strengths and Nakhid needs to urgently be recalled.
It is a pity that no one saw it fit, to postpone Dennis Lawrence's attempts at an overseas contract, in that we should have kept our number one defender at home at least until the end of the year. I am certain he could have obtained a contract next year, maybe even more lucrative after some more heroics. Instead we have allowed him to play in England against tough opponents and in conditions for which he is clearly unfamiliar and he has incurred a major injury which could end with him not only missing the Costa Rica match, but also the next qualifier against Mexico.
There are a lot of persons who believe that commentators are whistling in the wind, for the recall of David Nakhid, because the issue goes beyond football, but whatever it is, it cannot be any issue larger than the welfare of Trinidad and Tobago's football. Whatever it takes whatever apology it needs or does not need, we need to send for Nakhid as soon as possible, so he can start to train with the team.
There were a lot of tings wrong with Trinidad and Tobago's preparations for this world Cup campaign, starting with the lack of intensity and build up after we completed our final match in mid November last year. But we have to put that behind us, we have to look ahead, of course learning from our errors.
Certainly Cyd" Five More" Gray does not belong in this team, as to Evans "Can't Cross" Wise and Lyndon "Too Fat" Andrews, we need to make these adjustments immediately.
There are two other players besides Nakhid that warrant the attention of our technical staff and they are Arnold Dwarika and Jerren Nixon, at the end of the day, quality is far better than all the quantity in the world.
It was very pleasing to read of all the testimonials by several of the foreign based players after the 0-3 loss, especially as they all seemed aggrieved at disappointing the coach, maybe that is what is wrong though. They have forgotten they have disappointed a nation and hopefully they are also saddened with their performance. It would have also been a better plan to have disseminate these messages differently by the football authorities, because there just seemed a lot of "sameness" in their releases that were repeated all over the newspapers. Sometimes in trying to stave off the inevitable, we can overtly expose our hand, just some advice for future press releases.
As we head on to Mexico, we need to be certain of one thing, this is NOW, a DO OR DIE AFFAIR. It is a -CUP FINAL, we cannot lose.
Bring David Nakhid Now or else- ALL IS LOST -.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|