First things first- the team looked ORGANIZED. That's so good after the time we did with Mats. Latapy did a fine job with the team and management- kudos to him. The team played honourably, and there are many positives we can take. If we play like we did for the 1st half, and fix the defense and some other stuff I mention below, we'll definitely pick up a good many points in the coming games. If we did that from the start we wouldn't be in this position.
WE ARE STILL VERY MUCH IN WITH A GOOD CHANCE OF QUALIFYING, WE ARE AMONG 4 TEAMS WITH NOT MANY POINTS, THE TOP OF THE 4 ONLY HAS 3 MORE POINTS THAN US, MEXICO ONLY HAVE 1 MORE POINT THAN US. IT'S ALL UP TO US, IF WE CAN PLAY CONSISTENTLY TO THE HIGH QUALITY WE DISPLAYED FOR A GOOD PORTION OF THE FIRST HALF VS COSTA RICA AND WITH BETTER DEFENDING, THEN WE WILL QUALIFY, IF NOT WE WON'T AND DON'T DESERVE TO EITHER.
We really need more wing play. It should be carlos on the right, colin samuel on the left. when the costa ricans started packing up their goalmouth with players in the 2nd half, we needed wingplay to get behind them, but we didn't have it so we couldn't fashion any chances.
though there are many places to improve, this is the best I've seen the team play since the world cup. the fellas can hold their heads up. Carlos was the best player by far. Our midfielders played well in the first half.
Yorke played ok. silvio spann and trent noel were very good, i was very impressed by them attacking wise- not defensively. We need to pack our box more when the costa ricans are attacking, men need to run back. replace marvin andrews with keyeno thomas.
I think latapy made a mistake taking off all our midfielders in the second half, because we couldn't build play and make chances like before, but overall latapy did a great job putting together this team. The Tinto substitution for samuel was very good though. I have a feeling Latapy will prove to be a top manager.
kenwyne and scotland combined well for good portions of the first half. that looks promising. on another day i think scotland would have scored a few, it just wasn't his day.
About cornell glenn and baptiste, i'm still not sure. we need to see baptiste play in at least a decent international friendly. cornell glenn is and enigma, he's exceptionally fast and skilled, but doesn't play with a great awareness of what's going on around him and his decision making in many instances is questionable. if the team's defence is crowded, he tends to run head on and lose the ball many times, but he's so skilled i'm sure there's some way we can put him in the mix- or maybe not. cornell glenn and kenwyne jones?? looking forward to daryl roberts coming back too.
In the end we have many skilled players, but it's just about finding the best team, and i think latas came damn close to that today.
1) wingplay and crosses into the box- left colin samuel, right carlos edwards
2)I feel highland can replace yorke for the 2nd half of games
3) keon daniel can be used behind the strikers as a playmaker, his freekicks are an added bonus that
4)we need to hussle whichever opposing player has the ball, like we were doing at the start, but for the whole match. this forces errors, like we saw at the start when the costa ricans constanly lost the ball and couldn't build plays
Keep you heads up fellas, you all played honourably( notwithstanding the defensive errors), and the same for you latas- you did honourably. You all just have to play consistently for whole matches and wit better defense like you did for the first 30 minutes of the first half. The fact that I can even draw a reference to our team's actual play as a benchmark, shows the hope that has risen from this performance, or at least segments of it. You couldn't say something like that since the world cup. Thanks in big part to Mr. Jack Warner- he helped Trinidad take 10 steps forwards in doing a plenty to get us to the World cup 06, then eagerly ensured we took 15 backwards with his jacklist and other vindictive and disgusting things since september 2006 up to about somewhere in 2009. 3 years wasted- 3 years of driving in reverse. Comeon Mr. Warner, you don't have to be like that.
BTW...-