T&T captain Dwight Yorke and close friend Russell Latapy will be asked to put all their years of experience into today’s crucial World Cup final leg play-off against Bahrain, if the Warriors are to get the decisive win to qualify for Germany next year.
The Warriors come up against their hosts from seven o’clock Bahrain time tonight (noon T&T) and must beat the Middle East nation or at least earn a high-scoring draw in order to make amends for the 1-1 result in the first leg match at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port-of-Spain last Saturday.
The Warriors had a final workout at the match venue behind closed doors yesterday but, according to coach Leo Beenhakker, the session was not intense.
Beenhakker has not played down the difficulty of the task facing the Warriors today, pointing out that the Warriors knew all along that the Bahrainis would be tough opponents.
The Dutch-born coach is confident that his team “can play much better” than they did on Saturday. Whether the Warriors will be able to deny the Bahrainis victory on their home soil remains to be seen.
In the eyes of Beenhakker and Yorke, the tie is far from over, despite the difficulty of having to find holes in Bahrain’s well-organised defence in intimidating surroundings.
The visiting team has been working overtime to find a way of getting through Bahrain’s defence.
Unlike other Arab teams, who generally depend on the individual skills of their star performers, Bahrain relies on teamwork and good organisation.
They demonstrated this in reaching the 2004 AFC Asian Cup semifinals and did so again during the first leg match against T&T, in which they frustrated the Warriors for long periods.
It took a wonder goal from Port Vale midfielder Chris Birchall to finally break them down and restore T&T’s hope of a first FIFA World Cup finals place.
Today, it does not matter who gets on target. One thing for certain is that the T&T footballers must find the net, and early, if they are to put the pressure on Bahrain.
A big blow for the home team is the absence of team captain, Mohammed Salmeen and star defender Abdulla al Marzooqi, who will miss the match after being shown yellow cards on Saturday.
T&T manager Bruce Aanensen reported yesterday that all the players were fit and ready for the challenge.
“We think Bahrain played quite well and they played with a lot of heart. They were strong defensively and the goalkeeper was particularly outstanding and made two terrific saves from Chris Birchall and Dennis Lawrence,” he said.
“His contributions kept Bahrain in the game and if we had scored from those two chances, it could have been a different game. But we are still confident of going through to Germany.”
He admitted there was a lot of pressure on the players but said they were used to such situations.
“We have played under similar situations in the past and the players are used to it.”
Beenhakker is expected to name his final 18-man roster just before the match and it is widely tipped that defender Ian Cox, striker Scott Sealy and goalkeeper Clayton Ince will be left out while striker Kenwyne Jones or Cornell Glen will partner Stern John up front and Aurtis Whitley, who has recovered from his calf strain, will keep his starting role in midfield.
The Warriors are mindful that Bahrain, despite their stingy defence, had conceded four goals in three matches at home prior to the 0-0 draw with Uzbekistan in the Asian play-off.
They were beaten 3-2 by South Korea and 1-0 by Japan.
Bahrain, meanwhile, will be hoping that recent history can repeat itself in the second leg match. Just over a month ago, they returned home with a 1-1 draw from their Asian Zone play-off first leg against Uzbekistan and completed the job with a goalless draw which sent them through to the play-off with T&T on away goals.
They would be happy with a repeat in Manama today.