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MORE WORK must be spent on developing national footballers, especially at the grass roots level, before they are exposed to the international circuit. This is the view of Lincoln “Tiger” Phillips, Technical Director of the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) who returned home with the national Under-20 team on Monday.


The Under-20s, coached by Anton Corneal, failed in their bid to advance to the World Youth Championships in the Netherlands when they were beaten by hosts USA, Costa Rica and Panama in last week’s CONCACAF Group “A” qualifiers. Asked to comment on the national youth teams (both Under-20 and Under-17), the former national, Maple and QRC goalkeeper said: “I have gotten the opportunity to assess all our teams and now I’m prepared to make recommendations,” he said.

“I’ve seen our problems and I don’t want us to look at results,” he continued. “We’re a very result-oriented society, we always look at the results but the results are something that comes at the end,” he said. Stating that the focus must be “what happens in between,” Phillips admitted: “We, as a country, we’re not ready for prime time.” “Our coaching methods are woefully lacking right through, from top to bottom,” he declared. “When we get outside there, the players we play against, all of them, their first touch are impeccable.” “They can pass the ball, they can move into open spaces quickly. They can change the plan of attack quickly. Our teams don’t do that because of the training they go through. They play so many matches first of all, that they don’t have time to train.”

Focusing on the local school system, the former US youth goalkeeping-coach noted: “They play too many matches and there needs to be strong emphasis on training and developing, especially passing and receiving,” he said. “Those are the two most often-used skills — passing and then to receive the ball,” he said. “We not only have to receive it, but we have to prepare it so we can play fast. We play too slow because we’re so static. We have to work very, very hard on developing these players.” Pertaining to the Under-20s, Phillips noted: “As far as the players are concerned, I saw a glimpse of the future in this team and I like what I see.” The team began with a crushing 6-1 defeat to the US on Wednesday night.

“They were as scared as hell,” Phillips revealed. “They were scared because they didn’t have that experience (as the Americans) and we (got) shocked. We couldn’t play. Four goals came from crosses and, the next day we got the film. We (the technical staff) sat down, we analysed the film and showed them how we can stop these crosses,” he added. Stating that the team improved as the tournament went on, Phillips added: “I was so impressed that everytime (the Costa Rican and Panamanian) players went down to cross the ball, they never got one cross off,” he said. “If you teach players or you address a deficiency as major as that and you could go out the next day and correct it, what (would have) happened if we had them for three years?” he asked.

“So it’s imperative that this team continues training and I’ll do whatever I can to keep this team because this is our World Cup team (for the future) and we must not stop training at all.” Phillips made the call for a sporting academy and the standardising of training throughout Trinidad and Tobago. “If a guy is 17-years-of-age and played with his club; same training. When it comes to the national teams (and) the high schools, same thing,” he noted. The current Under-20 team would now prepare for three upcoming qualifiers — the 2005 Caribbean and Central American (CAC) Games, Pan Am Games and 2008 Beijing Olympics.

About the Under-17s, Phillips said: “Since we don’t have any competitions coming up, we must go back to the zones, get some zonal screening and pick a team again, reassemble in a year’s time and go from there,” said Phillips. “We have to take the bull by the horns,” he continued, “we have to really work hard, we have to get money because we cannot send our players out on the field unprepared. We’re always two goals down (early in the game) and we have to stop that now.”