The hope of a nation does not entirely rest on our football team; I would say that the team's hopes rest on the nation.
A flurry of overwhelming support may prove healthy for the teams pyche as oppose to scepticism and cynicism. This begins with the unified decision making from the "top down." When people like Alvin Cornel continues to publicly criticized the team's defence and players, it hinders the collaboration needed to turn that criticism into a construtive one which may benefit all.
I think that many fans may be inclined to think that we do not have a perfect team, nor a perfect coach, nor a perfect system. But isn't part of this journey to success, about the obstacles one has to overcome along the way. Martin Luther states,
“THE MEASUREMENT OF SUCCCESS IS NOT WHERE YOU ARE TODAY, BUT BY THE OBSTACLES YOU HAD TO OVERCOME TO GET THERE"
If the path to qualifying to the WCQ was that easy, I would say that every nation who had a person who could kick a ball would be in the cup.
Furthermore, given the local funding or lack thereof, (I have not read of any major sponsors rallying to support our local team). the state of our economy, our commitments from our foreign based players and the effort by our locally based squads, we are managing to meet the demands of the competition. Not that these are excuses for poor performances, or lack of insightful coaching decisions.
Given all those circumstances, if one believes that we have better player resources, a better coach, and a better system, then I concur that we ought to explore what those "BETTER" would look like; who are they? and why are we not moving in that direction.
It is way too uncanny for us to bombast criticism at what we are doing with “hunches" and intuitive emotional outcries, rather than analytical, methodical data of the situation at hand.
Do we have the supportive resources in place? Could we access those human resources at our convience? Is there a level of commitment from these resources to take us to the next level? Is our nation prepared to ride through the waves of despair and to support us at any given cost?
I say the hopes of a nation should be directly proportional to how adequate that entire nation takes up the cause of our team "MAKING it THROUGH THE WCQ." Enough of the lazzire faire mentality and the criticism. Let’s get on board and let's be purposeful and focused on the ultimate goal.