I am not tolerating mediocrity against teams like Barbados, Bermuda, Grenada, Guyana or Jamaica. I could accept losses against Mexico and US but not anyone else. Say what yuh want, I am not accepting anything less from these guys, they should feel the pressure once they put on that Red White and Black.
what is the fundamental difference between ourselves and B'dos, JA, Grenada or Bermuda? are we imbued with special footballing skills from birth, or are we ordained by the good lord to be vastly superior no matter our preparations?
consider two former U-20 teams whose members are currently taking over the senior side. the 2009 side of leston paul, de silva, molino, akeem adams etc. the other from 2007 with keon daniel, atullah guerra, hyland, lester peltier,javed mohammed and aaron downing, carlyle mitchell,
the 2009 side made 2 world cups. 2007 squad were beaten out of CFU qualifying by St Kitts. but unquestionably most people following local football will tell you that it was the 2007 that had more far more talent. so what happened?
the difference was preparation. the 2007 side only had six weeks to prepare. they only played super league and pro-league sides. at the end they got 2 practice games against venezuela, won their final match but it was not enough.
this side was highly touted, with
very high expectations. in spite of not even advancing out of CFU qualifying hyland, peltier and guerra were already scouted by Portsmouth, Aaron Downing was previously gotten trials in Scotland at the age of 17. despite all these accomplishments it was Keon Daniel who was regarded as the squad's best player. he already had a two week trial with Manchester United while still a teenager in 2005.
their showing was of couse met by fans complaining the players and coach were 'shitongs'. the whole bloody disaster forced the ttff to start forming youth teams earlier, keeping them together longer, allot more training time and arranging more international friendlies. the 2007 U-17 squad were the next in line and they were the first beneficiaries of these reforms.
the results are telling. without proper preparation our arguably brightest, most individually skilled youth team since 1990 was summarily dismissed by the likes of St Kitts. the same keon daniel, peltier and hyland that folks labelling as 'not good'. the far less talented
team benefitted from good preparation and went on to become the most successful in our history.
playing for national pride means nothing without preparation.