Trinidad and Tobago vs. Honduras: Much Ado About Plenty – Staying in World Cup Qualification Contention
By Chambi Sey
In a departure from the traditional script, Trinidad and Tobago’s potentially final match of material interest in the 2018 World Cup qualification process kicks-off today at an unanticipated venue, the Ato Boldon Stadium. It has been proposed that the location offers the intimacy of a spectator-player interaction that would be absent at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. However, despite the change in location, the warmth with which visiting teams are received in Trinidad and Tobago is unlikely to change. Within CONCACAF, there are no legendary stories in circulation with respect to hostility emanating from fans in Trinbagonian stands. Apparently, Trinis reserve their powder for internecine skirmishes and bacchanal.
At worst, the Hondurans are likely to be mutually affected by the change in venue. At best, they are likely to be mutually benefitted. Jorge Luis Pinto, the Colombian head coach of the Honduran national team, has complained about the condition of the grass at the facility and there has been a reasonable interpretation in Tegucigalpa that the venue change was conveniently calculated to frustrate the catrachos’ progress, rather than to aid harmony in local support. Nonetheless, by their own testimony, Hondurans are not strangers to adversity. As Greece-based defensive midfielder Alfredo Mejia explained, “we come from humble circumstances, I’ve played on worst pitches”.
Entering this round of competition, Trinidad and Tobago’s record is by far the most dismal of the teams in the Hex (1-0-5), yet the nation remains within arithmetic striking distance of preserving a stake in the competition. Three of the six teams in the standings have mustered merely one victory in six outings (Honduras, Panama and Trinidad and Tobago). Of the other teams, only Mexico and Costa Rica have compiled more than two wins. Victory would somersault the Socawarriors above the currently fifth-placed Hondurans and potentially position Dennis Lawrence’s charges within one point of Panama, who face a stiff assignment away to Mexico in the Estadio Azteca. Panama has scored at the Azteca on only two occasions (Jorge Dely Valdes in 2000 and Luis Tejada in 2013) and has never won at the venue. Moreover, the canaleros will be entering the arena without the inspirational presence of suspended team captain Roman Torres (Seattle Sounders) and injured goalkeeper Jaime Penedo (Dynamo Bucharest). Mexico with a win over Panama would happily seal a return trip to Russia, following their appearance at the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. Icing on the cake would be provided should Costa Rica stall efforts by the United States to add to the eight points the Americans have accumulated. Costa Rica have had one of the stingier defenses on display in the hexagonal and statistically present one of the more balanced showings between attacking success and defensive solidity. Collectively, these combined scenarios offer an encouraging picture with respect to Trinidad and Tobago’s prospects of resuscitating its World Cup effort. However, the obstacle wedged in the way is Honduras, a nation that has represented CONCACAF at the two immediately preceding editions of the FIFA World Cup, a nation that has in its touring party players who acquired valuable international experience at the 2016 Olympic Games in Brazil, and a squad that is conscious of the projected weight and statistics of a fixture disproportionately in their favor. Although episodes of Trinbagonian resistance to the Hondurans exist (draws in 1990 and 2010 World Cup qualifying), crucially, Trinidad and Tobago have never defeated Honduras on Trinidad and Tobago national territory.
Across two coaching regimes, it has been a testing campaign for Trinidad and Tobago. Goals and victories have been difficult to achieve, and so too have been draws that would have salvaged or preserved points. Lamentably, the Socawarriors are the only team not to have drawn a match at this stage of the competition and have mustered solely three goals in the ten months since the present phase of qualifying commenced (a Carlyle Mitchell header versus Honduras away and two contributions by Kevin Molino, one in Port of Spain versus Panama and the other away to Costa Rica). On the contrary, the Panamanians’ present tentative hold on the “playoff spot” is on the backs of having drawn four matches. Under any assessment, the coaching changes instituted by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Association (TTFA) have not precipitated tangible changes in fortune where it matters most – winning matches. However, there is no guarantee that sustaining the preceding status quo would have resulted in a different present. On the historical evidence, Trinidad and Tobago have typically suffered less than optimal showings during World Cup qualifying.
In the Honduran goal, regular starter Donis Escober (CD Olimpia) will be unavailable for the match due to injury. Having recalled Escober’s teammate Carlo Costly to the national team, Jorge Luis Pinto has confirmed that the 35-year-old player will participate in the proceedings, but has been tightlipped as to whether the forward will enter the fray from the first whistle. The likely scenario is that the experienced Costly will enter the field off the bench. Regarded as an “X” factor in the playing equation, the rapprochement between player and coach has generated excitement among Honduran fans, injected vigor into the qualification project, lifted morale within the visiting camp and added to the Honduran artillery a footballer with echoes of the indomitable Blas Perez.
Pinto’s squad has not travelled well during the hexagonal phase and are seeking their first victory on the road. Costly, in his third World Cup qualification cycle, returns a competent body of experience and delivery to the cause. In 28 World Cup qualifying appearances, he has scored 13 goals. Although Costly has been away from the national team for roughly a year and a half, his reintegration into the squad appears to have been seamless. Having converted his most recent World Cup qualification goal in October 2013, the hope across Trinidad and Tobago is that the player departs the two-island republic without having supplemented his tally.
Since the inception of qualifying, Trinidad and Tobago’s forward line and attacking balance has been the subject of inquiry and concern, but not of significant tinkering. The participants until recently have been a parade of familiar faces led by the imposing presence of Kenwyne Jones, a player respected across CONCACAF but much maligned at home due to a dissonance in fans’ expectations of how the game should be played and a lack of dynamic cohesiveness in advanced areas of the pitch. While in the preceding round, Trinidad and Tobago benefitted from a diversity of goal scoring contributors, three of those players are unavailable for the encounter tonight (Trevin Caesar, Levi Garcia and Kenwyne Jones) and other members of the attacking cast are either largely attempting to assert their playing merits or to extend their international careers. However, Joevin Jones, the most prolific of the scoring contributors, expressed this week his performance debt to the footballing public and promised improved performances after having rendered successive sub-par performances. The comments constitute a welcome self-critique by an immensely talented player whose attacking insistence must not be compromised or restrained in the quest for maximum points. Jones is correctly perceived by the Hondurans as a fundamental element in Trinidad and Tobago cementing its goal scoring opportunities in counterattacking situations.
Honduras, wary of Trinidad and Tobago executing on the counterattack, are expected to seek to maintain controlled possession of the ball. Upon losing the ball, they are expected to attempt to regain it quickly, seeking to exploit vulnerable spaces relative to Trinidad and Tobago’s posture on transition. According to Pinto, the Hondurans accept that they must take calculated risks to secure departure from Couva with more points than which they arrived.
In goal, Pinto is regarded as favoring Buba Lopez (Real España) and a Back Four consisting of skipper Maynor Figueroa (FC Dallas) and Henry Figueroa (CD Motagua) as central defenders with Emilio Izaguirre (Al Feiha FC, Saudi Arabia) on the left flank and Felix Crisanto (CD Motagua) on the right. In front of them, he is favored to deploy Alfredo Mejia and Jorge “Pitbull” Claros (Real España). In more advanced positions, the surging contenders are Alex Lopez (CD Olimpia), Romell Quioto (Houston Dynamo), Alberth Elis (Houston Dynamo) and Anthony Lozano (FC Barcelona B, Spain). In the first-leg encounter, Quioto and Izaguirre were the authors of goals that deflated Trinidad and Tobago’s acquisition of points. And, on that occasion Pinto also opted for the Figueroa pairing in central defense.
Crisanto has emerged as a contender to start the match due to the card accumulation suspension of Brayan Beckeles (Necaxa, Mexico). The proposed role for Henry Figueroa would occur at the expense of Johnny Palacios (CD Olimpia). And, it is left to be seen whether Jan-Michael Williams or Daneil Cyrus will do battle with any of their teammates from Juticalpa FC. With Ovidio Lanza and Edras Padilla - the club teammates of Jan-Michael Williams and Daneil Cyrus - both likely to be secondary considerations in Pinto’s plans, it is unlikely that spectators will witness individualized derbies.
While Hurricane Harvey is represented to have thwarted what would likely have been a useful contribution by Trevin Caesar, Honduras’ Houston-based players Alberth Elis and Romell Quioto are notoriously present in Trinidad and Tobago having sensibly been rerouted for departure from Dallas. Why is the California-based Caesar not in Trinidad and Tobago when the Houston-based pair were observed on social media in knee-deep water? It is troubling that a player not resident in the immediately affected area has been unable to report for participation at the most important match of the calendar, when several other players from Houston have not been similarly impeded in reporting to their national teams. The player would have added a dimension in play (dribbling and penetrating with a purpose), not possessed or sufficiently exhibited by his colleagues, that has endeared him to observers of the game.
Following Honduras suffering a 3-0 loss to Mexico and a 2-2 draw away to Panama on the last pair of matchdays during this qualification stage, the head coach’s future had to be publicly ratified by his employers. Honduras decided to swim or sink with Pinto, a path the TTFA declined to adopt with the coaching staff that inserted Trinidad and Tobago into the hexagonal round. Versus Panama, after Quioto and Ellis punctuated both halves of play with opening and apparently closing goals, the Hondurans appeared to be three points clear until opposing captain Roman Torres produced a committed 90th minute strike that robbed Honduras of the two points that would have placed them in an ascendant position coming into tonight’s engagement. In referring to the defensive organization of the Hondurans vis-à-vis Torres’ equalizer, a television analyst described the incident as reflecting “total anarchy … disorder across the board”. Across Trini fandom, lapses in application of that sort undoubtedly would be embraced.
There’s the sense that after well-documented officiating errors (notably a disallowed goal ruled offside versus Mexico and a notorious foul that should have provoked the compensatory award of a penalty against Costa Rica), Trinidad and Tobago’s national team is due a break in the transmission of unfavorable outcomes. Whether the national team’s errant marksmen can compose themselves to make new history is another question. In November 2015, it took Mexico 22 years to defeat Honduras on Honduran soil. Although history favors the Hondurans in Trinidad, Trinbagonians hope not to have to wait that long to disrupt Honduran fortunes and to return to World Cup contention.