Despite the Trinidad and Tobago football team's 2-1 loss in their first World Cup final round qualifier to the United States yesterday at the Queen's Park Oval, coach Bertille St Clair remains optimistic that his team can make it to the World Cup.
Although admitting that achieving this will be
easier said than done, the "Soca Warriors'" coach is focussing on the
big picture.
"Well, it's a long journey ahead," St Clair told the media after the match, "and I promised Trinidad and Tobago that we going to the World Cup."
But the T&T coach also expressed disappointment over yesterday's result.
"I thought we had a fair game. It wasn't what I expected, because I thought we could've done better. But seeing as....we (were) coming from behind, I thought we have to accept the result. But if you look at the game this evening, you recognise these fellows are good, and the journey is a long one."
St Clair was also very pleased with the performance of Dwight Yorke in his first international game in T&T colours since 2001.
"I thought it was excellent. He didn't score goals, but if you recognised the sort of runs that he made, he was masterminding all the passes, is (just) that he wasn't getting the support in the middle from the guys except when we put on the young boy (Densil) Theobald and the man coming from the side, Angus Eve."
St Clair also alluded to not being satisfied with the starting XI in yesterday's match, saying that if he had to play the match over, he would not have started with a couple of the players.
Asked whether he was considering asking Russell Latapy to return to the national team, the coach replied: "Well, I mean all the guys I brought back were the fellows who called me and said coach I want to contribute to Trinidad. Latapy never did. I think his agent called Mr (Richard) Brathwaite once. You want the people who will want to represent the country."
US coach Bruce Arena was high in praise of T&T goalkeeper Shaka Hislop and Coventry City striker Stern John: "I think Shaka Hislop should be credited for making some very big saves. He made the difference, because that game easily could have been three or four-nil in the last 20 minutes and he kept them in the game. Both goalkeepers played well."
Of John, Arena said: "I thought Stern John was fantastic today. He was a handful. I think (George) Pope and (Cory) Gibbs did a very good job, but he was very good."
But Arena was also critical of the match venue. "Conditions were difficult. The field was like playing in a parking lot. The field was 80 yards wide, 120 long, the heat, everything else, it was very difficult."