Trinidad and Tobago football fans swear that the national team are perennial under-achievers. If there were a competition for coming second, Trinidad and Tobago would come second.
Another way to look at it, though, is to reason that the boys in "red, white and black" over achieved in 1973 and 1989 and reverted to type in the periods between and thereafter.
United States coach Bruce Arena, to be blunt, does not look through the list of opponents for the final CONCACAF qualifying round and shift uneasily in his seat when he spots "Trinidad and Tobago".
Sure, we have produced several players to merit special attention from the top regional outfits but, if that were enough, George Weah (Liberia), Ryan Giggs (Wales) and George Best (Northern Ireland) would have all featured in football's most famous tournament. And they have not.
Trinidad and Tobago, as a football nation, are not nearly as good as many think.
Wait, here is the good news. That is exactly
why we should appreciate and support the effort of the present national team.
It is foolish to judge coach Leo Beenhakker's troops by standards set by predecessor Everald "Gally" Cummings in 1989. Not when coaches Edgar Vidale and Brazilian Clovis D'Oliviera could not steer T&T past the group stage in 1992, Yugoslav Zoran Vranes and Brazilian Sebastiao Pereira de Araujo got only as far as the CONCACAF semi-final round in 1996 and the combination of Scotsman Ian Porterfield and a third Brazilian Rene Simoes managed cellar place in the final round in 2001.
Let us not get too carried away.
A good day is not one that ends with you holding the winning lottery ticket. It is a morning with minimal traffic, an afternoon when the nearest Food Court serves up an especially tasty meal and, at night, you return home to find that TV6 is showing the movie you always wanted to see.
Not such a bad picture, is it?
While you are in this peaceful place, let me suggest that Trinidad and Tobago were only ever good enough for fourth place and the Play-Off drama whether or not Beenhakker had replaced local coach Bertille St Clair sooner.
Sure, T&T improved, but not enough to get a point from either Costa Rica or the United States on the road and Mexico shaved the home-and-away meeting between the two teams despite fielding a weakened outfit in our last encounter. There has been little tangible evidence to suggest that Beenhakker's outfit can beat any of those three teams to an automatic qualifying spot.
So, by finishing fourth, Trinidad and Tobago fulfilled their potential. It gets tougher from here on. Bahrain who? We have never heard of them so they can't possibly pose a serious threat.
Well, I am willing to bet that Bahrain never heard of us either. Touche!
My knowledge of Bahrain-and Asian football in general-is limited to snatches of highlight reels. I cannot recall seeing anything to fear.
But it is not for nought that Bahrain-whose population is just under 700,000 people-are, like Trinidad and Tobago, 180 minutes away from a World Cup Finals.
Statistically, Bahrain appear more an immovable object than an irresistible force.
After 15 qualifying matches, Bahrain only twice conceded more than one goal in a match while they lost 1-0 to Japan in both legs.
In this respect, they seem to share with Trinidad and Tobago a similar appreciation for frustrating the opponent rather than outgunning him.
Beenhakker uses star striker Stern John as a lone battering ram assisted by the occasional forays upfront by the gifting but aging pair of captain Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy.
John was superb in his last two outings against Panama and Mexico, but both teams had already confirmed their World Cup fate. Bahrain may or may not be able to match those teams for defensive organisation, but they will surely outdo them for intensity.
By and large, football is about which team wants it more on any given day. Trinidad and Tobago wrestled three points from Panama and Mexico this month. They must show similar appetite next month and then hope that it is enough.
Trinidad and Tobago football fans want to win and so we should. But we do not deserve to win. Not yet.
There is nothing in our history that screams international success. The World Cup has gone on for decades, oblivious to our absence.
Reality bites. But this is the moment to bite back. Trinidad and Tobago have overcome 16 years of relative mediocrity to get this far. Now, if only we can go a step further.