61
Football / Re: Connection's Winchester, Benjamin Jr. for Dallas trial
« on: July 06, 2011, 05:30:25 AM »Not impressed.
Mose I agree not impressed as a matter of fact to slow and deliberate for me.
June 08, 2024, 01:08:13 AM
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Mose I agree not impressed as a matter of fact to slow and deliberate for me.
63
Football / Re: Women's World Cup
« on: June 29, 2011, 02:29:17 PM »Australia ent playing they could throw-away.
Brazil going to get a cut-ass in this tournament.
I second and third that,they'll be beaten soundly by a team that finishes better....
64
Football / Re: 2011 Gold Cup Thread.
« on: June 26, 2011, 02:10:37 PM »Adu looked great, USA looked poor. Mexico should have won this game alot more comfortably than they did....quality U.S. goals though, but funny enough, they were no where in the game when they scored...very strange how the 1st 25 mins of the game went.You talking outa timin! don't let yuh bias cloud your vision, Bc fellas like clint dempsey , donovan , edu, altidor , jermain jones (good find) bradley a superb defensive mid, and bocanegra is all top notch quality players, and what i like about them men is that they don't roll on the ground and carry on wid shenanigans when they leading, they does play the game honest wid poise and heart.
4-2 actually flattered the States in the end. Apart from Adu, US has no players with genuine skill and natural expression - Until they figure that out, they will always be on a tier or two below real quality.
the U.S. needs tuh get rid of that badoya guy and the new central defender/ i think his name is goodson or something like that, they were the weakest links in the whole tourney, i think if they had onyewo and clark in the midfield things would've went differently.
mexico got lucky today, the only goal they scored that off set the U.S. defense was the first goal, other than dat, all their goals were weak scrable goals BC of a lack of experience by the newbee defenders and midfielders.
Yuh no I don't come on this board to often but when I read some responses I can't help but be amused by it,you obviously was watching a different game than me.
It was a very exciting game on both ends but the better side prevailed end of story!!!!!
65
Football / Re: 2011 Gold Cup Thread.
« on: June 14, 2011, 01:59:48 PM »Poor Jamaica. They reel off 3 straight victories just to most likely face the USA in the quarterfinals.
Your menatlity is suspect. Weak even. The Jamaican mentality is not to hide or play like girly men. Check out the results in the last three games Jamaica play against the USA. If yo uthink Jamaica are running scared then you couldnt be more wrong. If that was the case they simply could have thrown the game last night.
Breds don't let these juvenile f**kers get the better of you on this board they're are all about hating,for me if it's not trini, I backing the next Caribbean country that doing well and in this case is Jamaica.
It really gets a old after being a member for so long the vitriol I hear coming out of some of these people mouths and don't get me wrong yardies do it also but we can't allow the mindless few to dictate....
66
Football / Re: Flex's mother passed away.
« on: May 22, 2011, 06:35:12 AM »
Condolences to you and your family.
67
Football / Re: Time for a SWN 2011 sweat
« on: May 18, 2011, 11:30:26 AM »
I in dat for the DC sweat my knees are slowly coming back.
68
Football / Re: Shaka: T&T not ready for Brazil.
« on: May 11, 2011, 05:55:09 AM »
Hahahahahaha
We Going Brazil!!!!!
We Going Brazil!!!!!
69
Football / Re: Give Tallman a drink!
« on: May 05, 2011, 08:50:36 PM »
Happy Birthday my brother stay healthy and strong!!
70
Football / Re: A set of Fatima men on this Forum
« on: May 03, 2011, 02:30:13 PM »
Was it true two fatima form four boys made a video of them giving one another head,it was about two years ago I was told.Wey fatima was always iffy but now they gone clear boi.
71
Football / Re: VIDEO: Gally Cummings vs Mexico - 1973
« on: April 28, 2011, 06:38:17 AM »I got to love this. Number 10 is Archibald ?
Gally showed how it should be done !!!! He was a sight to see and had to be one of the best midfielders to play for T&T. That freekick was sweet......
Nice video Flex, thanks to Gally to.
This is why your site is tops...
He have speed to bad,plus the man who pass the ball to him when he hit the shot wide of the post that fella have some touches ala lattas...
72
Football / Re: VIDEO: Gally Cummings vs Mexico - 1973
« on: April 28, 2011, 05:47:42 AM »
I've been trying for years to get some footage of games in the past,this is amazing keep it coming,who's the number 10?
74
Football / Re: Pfister picks Corneal, Charles as his assistants.
« on: April 14, 2011, 06:14:55 AM »
HA HA HA HA HA HA "We Going Brazil"
75
Football / Re: Interesting Observation Part 2 / A Serious Analysis!!!!!
« on: April 12, 2011, 02:57:01 PM »Saga Pinto-
Maybe you need to start being more selective in your choice of friends
or maybe you need to keep your personalities in check
And you are?
76
Football / Interesting Observation Part 2 / A Serious Analysis!!!!!
« on: April 10, 2011, 04:23:01 PM »
Saga Pinto
First of all thanks for taking some serious stick on my behalf. I want to clear up some issues raised previously:
1) I did apply for forum membership on-line in 2006 and never got a response from the moderators. I don't know what happened.
2) I hold no brief for Mr Warner. My reference to “poor Jack” was satirical. Sorry if it was too subtle for some.
Now Saga Pinto, last time, I poke a jep nest by saying that Germany 2006 was a fluke. The English language is a very complicated thing. Webster's dictionary defines a “fluke” as “a turn of exceptional good luck”. The inference was that we needed a hell of a lot of luck to qualify in 2006. Anybody who disputes that, wasn't really paying attention. Flukes do not repeat themselves often and I want to offer into evidence the following arguments to support the fluke theory.
Before I do this, I want to say something to the very emotional fans on the forum. In most sports, serious fans spend time analyzing data, statistics and track records in order to have an informed expectation of the team they support. In baseball, fans analyze and compare team and player batting averages, horse racing fans analyze win statistics to estimate betting odds and so on. Football fans by and large live from game to game. If we win, we celebrate. If we lose, we want to cuss the world and mash up de place, which is why we have plenty football hooligans and no baseball or basketball hooligans. So, if what I say causes you to cuss and carry on, QED.
Statistical anomaly:
Statistically, TNT's chances of qualifying for 2014 or any other WC are remote at best. National sport selection, like mortality experience, is a numbers game. Every experienced insurance agent knows that on average, you have to make 15 calls to get 5 interviews to sell 1 policy. Similarly, you need a large pool of players to select the best of the best of the best to compete at the WC level. TNT just doesn't have those numbers to guarantee consistency. Even with a West Indies population of some 6 million, we don't have the numbers to select a consistently strong cricket team to compete on the world stage, which is why we can’t beat crazy ants since the fluke of the Clive Lloyd era ended 30 years ago.
If you want to find 50 world class players to form a team with depth, then you need a pool of a couple hundred really good players to start with, which is why the US created the ODP for youth soccer. According to a recent publication on Canadian sport demographics, the number of young people registering to play soccer last year has reached 1 million, (about the size of our entire nation), 400,000 more than Canada's other major sport, hockey. I am predicting that the 3 powerhouses in CONCACAF in the next 20 years will be Canada, USA and Mexico. Rather than take their limited resources and waste it on a foreign coach, they have publicly admitted to sacrificing 2014 and 2018 with the hope of dominating the minnows to qualify consistently from 2022 (like the US has from 1990). Don’t just read SWF, check out the bigger picture.
The other statistic that upset forumites was the 20 year prediction. Odds are that TNT will not qualify for another WC in 20 years. Some informed rebuttals to this point from forumites included “bullshit” and “woman talk” Please consider this:
Jamaica's one and only fluke qualification was in 1998, 12 years ago, Canada's was in 1986 France, 24 years ago. Neither country has much of a statistical chance of getting pass both Honduras and Costa Rica in 2013 grab the 3rd spot. The odds of the winning the play-off game for the other half spot (as Costa Rica found out) are not all that good, especially if we pull South America again. Canada, as I have already pointed out, have recognized this and are strategically focusing on creating a large pool to own that 3rd Concacaf spot from 2022. So where does that leave TNT?
TNT's best chance prior to 2006 was 32 years ago in 1974 when we were robbed in Haiti. 1990 does not count since we were not good enough to get past the US. Close, but no cigar. While every team walking on to the field (including Barbados and Bermuda) has a mathematical chance of qualifying, the probability range varies from plus 95% confidence in Brazil (which has qualified for every WC since 1932) to less than 5% confidence in Grenada which has not, and probably will never, ever, ever qualify. Assuming that each of Canada, TNT and Jamaica had a similar theoretical chance of qualifying (each having done it once before), we need to see when this is likely to occur again. If we were to find the average wait period of the 3 Concacaf “one shot” teams to date, it would be (32+12+24) divided by 3 or 22.6 years, ergo 20 years from 2010.
Now, 20 years sounds like a very long time, but it is just another 5 tournaments. If we can qualify 1 in every 5 times, then we are actually doing exceptionally well. There are 16 teams which have qualified only once for the WC and are have not had a second run to date. They are: Dutch East Indies, Senegal, Wales, Ukraine, Cuba, Jamaica, Israel, Kuwait, TNT, Iraq, Togo, Canada, China, Haiti, Zaire, UAE. Their average wait time so far exceeds 40 years. So why get upset if I say TNT will not qualify for another 20 years? I am giving us far better statistical odds than the rest of the other One Hit Wonders of the World. Of these hopefuls, I pick China as the most likely to repeat in 2014.
If TNT does qualify for Brazil 2014 with the present crop of players (inducing the proposed EPL second division recruits), it will require a bigger fluke (or stroke of really really exceptionally good luck) than in 2006. Based on available statistics, I wouldn't bet on it though.
The truth is that while I am still a TNT supporter, I try to do so with some intelligence. If the “experts” on this forum are right, then I am nothing more than a madman talking a pile of crap. Time will most certainly tell.
First of all thanks for taking some serious stick on my behalf. I want to clear up some issues raised previously:
1) I did apply for forum membership on-line in 2006 and never got a response from the moderators. I don't know what happened.
2) I hold no brief for Mr Warner. My reference to “poor Jack” was satirical. Sorry if it was too subtle for some.
Now Saga Pinto, last time, I poke a jep nest by saying that Germany 2006 was a fluke. The English language is a very complicated thing. Webster's dictionary defines a “fluke” as “a turn of exceptional good luck”. The inference was that we needed a hell of a lot of luck to qualify in 2006. Anybody who disputes that, wasn't really paying attention. Flukes do not repeat themselves often and I want to offer into evidence the following arguments to support the fluke theory.
Before I do this, I want to say something to the very emotional fans on the forum. In most sports, serious fans spend time analyzing data, statistics and track records in order to have an informed expectation of the team they support. In baseball, fans analyze and compare team and player batting averages, horse racing fans analyze win statistics to estimate betting odds and so on. Football fans by and large live from game to game. If we win, we celebrate. If we lose, we want to cuss the world and mash up de place, which is why we have plenty football hooligans and no baseball or basketball hooligans. So, if what I say causes you to cuss and carry on, QED.
Statistical anomaly:
Statistically, TNT's chances of qualifying for 2014 or any other WC are remote at best. National sport selection, like mortality experience, is a numbers game. Every experienced insurance agent knows that on average, you have to make 15 calls to get 5 interviews to sell 1 policy. Similarly, you need a large pool of players to select the best of the best of the best to compete at the WC level. TNT just doesn't have those numbers to guarantee consistency. Even with a West Indies population of some 6 million, we don't have the numbers to select a consistently strong cricket team to compete on the world stage, which is why we can’t beat crazy ants since the fluke of the Clive Lloyd era ended 30 years ago.
If you want to find 50 world class players to form a team with depth, then you need a pool of a couple hundred really good players to start with, which is why the US created the ODP for youth soccer. According to a recent publication on Canadian sport demographics, the number of young people registering to play soccer last year has reached 1 million, (about the size of our entire nation), 400,000 more than Canada's other major sport, hockey. I am predicting that the 3 powerhouses in CONCACAF in the next 20 years will be Canada, USA and Mexico. Rather than take their limited resources and waste it on a foreign coach, they have publicly admitted to sacrificing 2014 and 2018 with the hope of dominating the minnows to qualify consistently from 2022 (like the US has from 1990). Don’t just read SWF, check out the bigger picture.
The other statistic that upset forumites was the 20 year prediction. Odds are that TNT will not qualify for another WC in 20 years. Some informed rebuttals to this point from forumites included “bullshit” and “woman talk” Please consider this:
Jamaica's one and only fluke qualification was in 1998, 12 years ago, Canada's was in 1986 France, 24 years ago. Neither country has much of a statistical chance of getting pass both Honduras and Costa Rica in 2013 grab the 3rd spot. The odds of the winning the play-off game for the other half spot (as Costa Rica found out) are not all that good, especially if we pull South America again. Canada, as I have already pointed out, have recognized this and are strategically focusing on creating a large pool to own that 3rd Concacaf spot from 2022. So where does that leave TNT?
TNT's best chance prior to 2006 was 32 years ago in 1974 when we were robbed in Haiti. 1990 does not count since we were not good enough to get past the US. Close, but no cigar. While every team walking on to the field (including Barbados and Bermuda) has a mathematical chance of qualifying, the probability range varies from plus 95% confidence in Brazil (which has qualified for every WC since 1932) to less than 5% confidence in Grenada which has not, and probably will never, ever, ever qualify. Assuming that each of Canada, TNT and Jamaica had a similar theoretical chance of qualifying (each having done it once before), we need to see when this is likely to occur again. If we were to find the average wait period of the 3 Concacaf “one shot” teams to date, it would be (32+12+24) divided by 3 or 22.6 years, ergo 20 years from 2010.
Now, 20 years sounds like a very long time, but it is just another 5 tournaments. If we can qualify 1 in every 5 times, then we are actually doing exceptionally well. There are 16 teams which have qualified only once for the WC and are have not had a second run to date. They are: Dutch East Indies, Senegal, Wales, Ukraine, Cuba, Jamaica, Israel, Kuwait, TNT, Iraq, Togo, Canada, China, Haiti, Zaire, UAE. Their average wait time so far exceeds 40 years. So why get upset if I say TNT will not qualify for another 20 years? I am giving us far better statistical odds than the rest of the other One Hit Wonders of the World. Of these hopefuls, I pick China as the most likely to repeat in 2014.
If TNT does qualify for Brazil 2014 with the present crop of players (inducing the proposed EPL second division recruits), it will require a bigger fluke (or stroke of really really exceptionally good luck) than in 2006. Based on available statistics, I wouldn't bet on it though.
The truth is that while I am still a TNT supporter, I try to do so with some intelligence. If the “experts” on this forum are right, then I am nothing more than a madman talking a pile of crap. Time will most certainly tell.
77
Football / Re: Who are the New 8 Players that will Join the T&T Senior Team under Pfister?
« on: April 09, 2011, 07:14:18 AM »
Wait we currently have a team? I think when he said 8 new players he really meant 21 new players and all them battle weary players who amounted to nothing should take the next exit sign they see.......
81
Jokes / Re: Car Accident
« on: April 08, 2011, 07:13:30 AM »
Backward trinis for you,and a police of course.....never surprises me....
82
Jokes / Re: One spelling mistake can destroy your life.
« on: April 08, 2011, 07:11:22 AM »
nice!!
83
Jokes / Re: Three mice
« on: April 08, 2011, 07:10:17 AM »
It's on this board for at least 4years....
84
Football / Re: Scouting for Soca Warriors, the Thread.
« on: April 07, 2011, 02:30:46 PM »so guys....what the list look like.....feel free to add to my list....all oversee players ONLY...to make a good pool....i have a few in mind
Chris Birchall-MF
Julius James-DF
Kenwyne Jones-S
Jlloyd Samuel-DF
Jake Thompson-DF
Tony Warner-GK
Darryl Robert-S
Khaleem Hyland-MF
Keon Daniel-MF
Thorne Holder
Scott Sealy-S
Carlos Edward-MF/DF
Jason Scotland-S
Devon Jorsling-S
Kevin Molino-MF/S
Question What's the average age of these guys?
85
Football / Re: Interesting Observation From a Once Loyal T&T U20 Parent,Enjoy!!!!!
« on: April 06, 2011, 03:28:38 PM »
I had lunch with an old friend today and he told me that if you had to select a team pick the best crop of players from your pool,so let's look at this for a second we've been selecting players right out of colleges league-that for a long time has not been working,we've been selecting players from the pro league that also has not been bearing fruit lately so lets see overseas ah yes overseas well unfortunately that has holes as well,with some players riding pine regularly and the ones who getting a sweat every so often can't seem to find the back of the net consistently.
I tell you reality is a bitch and the truth definitely hurts and it seems as if all the forum members have a lot of time on there hands to spend constantly trying to defend mediocrity.The fact is as a footballing nation in order for us to amount to any success we need to be micro managed,yuh see it's impossible for us to play what was delegated to us it's a retention problem,it's evident in our games man ent holding their positions,straying,running off the ball a problem more likely to hold on for too long or dribble excessively,fitness an issue,I could go on an on,starting to see the picture,me eh like the word fluke either but like it has found a home here currently with our state of affairs....
I tell you reality is a bitch and the truth definitely hurts and it seems as if all the forum members have a lot of time on there hands to spend constantly trying to defend mediocrity.The fact is as a footballing nation in order for us to amount to any success we need to be micro managed,yuh see it's impossible for us to play what was delegated to us it's a retention problem,it's evident in our games man ent holding their positions,straying,running off the ball a problem more likely to hold on for too long or dribble excessively,fitness an issue,I could go on an on,starting to see the picture,me eh like the word fluke either but like it has found a home here currently with our state of affairs....
86
Football / Re: Interesting Observation From a Once Loyal T&T U20 Parent,Enjoy!!!!!
« on: April 05, 2011, 08:48:55 PM »
It is true that I'm being used for his own agenda,he's not a member on this site but a family friend and I made the decision to post on here. The reality is not everybody go act or say things that will have your blessings for some it may make sense for others pure nonsense. Allyuh better hope for the sake of T&T football and some on this site come qualifying time that this guy had it all wrong and ends up looking like a Madman when we qualify for Brazil.
The truth is I have my doubts about some of the things said but it's not me or him go be losing sleep over this...
The truth is I have my doubts about some of the things said but it's not me or him go be losing sleep over this...
87
Football / Re: Interesting Observation From a Once Loyal T&T U20 Parent,Enjoy!!!!!
« on: April 05, 2011, 08:05:15 PM »Saga PintoWhat a bunch cya crock. Maybe your son's future was always in academics and could not make out of the age grouping. "Poor Jack"?...typical.
The last time I shared a comment on TT football was just before the U17 team went to Korea. At that time I think some of your colleagues on the SWF felt that I was writing in defense of my son. Truth be told, I was in part. However my comments were also an attempt to share a perspective which at the time I don't think the majority grasped. Maybe after the perceived failure of current U17 and U20 teams, it will now make more sense to you.
I have read with great amusement the comments made on the forum after the U20 team's 5 nil loss to Mexico. Some forumites are blaming the coach, others blame the players, some say it is Jack's fault (poor Jack) others think its the lack of a development system. Ready for this? The answers is (d) None of the above. The real culprits for this big let down are the fans, particularly those on this forum and their foolish expectations. Hear me out before you stone me.
The problem with you folks is that you harbor unrealistic expectations. “We going Brazil” Really?
Your unrealistic expectations are based on what I consider to be 3 fluke occurrences:
1 Senior team qualification for Germany( fluke).
2. U17 Qualification or Korea (fluke)
3. U20 Qualification for Egypt (also a fluke).
Fluke occurrences are no basis for building a sustainable business model. In each of the above cases we qualified for the WC on the last goal in the last game. I am not a knowledgeable soccer fan so I may get names and times mixed up, but I seem to remember Dennis Lawrence (of all people) scoring a once-in-a-lifetime header to get us to Germany in the last do or die game, (how many headers has he scored in his career?). Young Molino scored one goal in the last do or die game against Jamaica to get us to South Korea and if I remember correctly, Sean De Silva scored one goal to get us to Egypt. Imagine scoring one single goal in a 3 or 4 game tournament and qualifying for the U20 world cup. Teams that have the right to be disappointed by a 5-0 result at that level, are those who have earned the right to be there by consistent performance. T&T lost all 3 games in Korea conceding 15 goals and scoring 1. We lost in Germany (conceding 5?) and drew one in Egypt (conceding 5?) for a total tally of about 25 against and 2 for. When the US embarrassed us last time with a 3 nil cut ass, men on the forum wanted to die. Did you really expect a different result? The problem is that fans have deluded themselves into thinking that these flukes are a norm, so when we collect 5 from a world class team like Mexico, everybody upset.
This delusion exists at many levels, not just with the fans. Some of the coaches themselves are infected with the madness. When we were in South Korea for the U17 tournament, I had a brief chat with Anton Corneal at the players hotel the day before the first game against Ghana. I asked him how the boy were feeling and if he had worked out the approach to the game. He said that the approach was all out attack and we were going to run the Ghanians into the ground. He predicted a TT win by 3 clear goals. Now I am no football coach, but that sounded like sheer madness to me. All out attack Anton? You must be mad. I told him that I heard that Ghana selected the final 20 players by lining up their best 40 and releasing the lions. Anton didn't find that funny at all. I said to a friend of mine later, “Chris, we getting 5.” So said so done. T&T persisted with this “attack with full force” lunacy throughout the tournament as if our opponents were the underdogs instead of us. Talk about delusional.
Now, I don't mind if the fans and coaches delude themselves. Fans and coaches really don't really have much to lose. The TTFF is hell-bent on hiring expensive coaches thinking that it will make a difference and since they have money to burn, every coach will promise them all sorts of miracles and take their money.
I am most concerned that the madness of unrealistic expectations has also infected the players, their parents and handlers. Every little boy who gets called to a TT youth team begins to dream of being the next Dwight or Russel or Shaka. Parents who see their son dribble through the unskilled competition at the trial stages, pretty soon begin to believe that crap. What the players and parents don't realizes that York, Latapy and Hislop, in a T&T context, were also flukes. These 3 happened to possess the innate talent that none of our current youth players have. The problem is that some people, including certain idiotic local coaches, make these young players and parents believe that it could happen to them too. They don't realize that, apart from the dynamic trio, the other TT players who are currently playing overseas football for real money, (Kenwene, Carlos, Stern etc) are by international standards, mediocre at best and could drop out of reckoning any day. Yet all these parents think that their son is special and that they will make it big like Dwight.
Experience does not support this expectation. We had the same bunch of players make it to 2 youth world cups, U17 and U20. Many of the parents who went to Korea were genuinely expecting that their sons would be discovered by foreign scouts and plucked from obscurity like Dwight was. How many of them have been so lucky? None. If you go back to my email to you before the U17 world cup, I picked just one player to make it big, Daniel Cyrus. I still have a hope for him, that is, if his genius agent Mr Look Loy doesn't screw it up for him. The other players with youth world cup experience who have banked their futures on pro football, are, with the exception of Primus, “earning their living” in that poor excuse for a pro league in T&T, waiting for some fairy god-father to take them away to Europe or the MLS. They don't realize that the reason they cant break in to the big times is that they just don't have the talent. Every one of them (except Cyrus) who has been to overseas trials and has returned empty handed. Incidentally, where is Jamal Gay now?
I want to thank Touches and Jah Goal for opening my eyes to the harsh realities of being a soccer parent. Their comments on my son's skill level years ago, caused me to re-evaluate what I was led to believe by certain supposedly well informed persons. After a careful review of specific criteria, I concluded that the chances that my son (or any of the other U17 players) had of “going pro” (outside of the TT Pro league) were remote at best. This certainly was not the lotto that I wanted to gamble his future on. I began to focus him on using his soccer talent as a ticket to get a free education. So far, he is not doing too badly with a 3.7 GPA and is currently preparing for the LSAT to enter Law school. My role has changed from being his football manager to his academic manager and it is my job to make sure that he stays focused. I hope that Leston Paul, Sean De Silva, Stephen Knox, Qian Grosvner, Uriah Bentick and the other few who are on scholarships in the US, understand that the real value of their soccer talent is to get free education and not play the ass in school, as most young men tend to.
It may appear that I am presenting an unfairly pessimistic and negative view of our talent pool, so I am providing you with a free acid test to assess potential pro prospects. Here it is...Jake Thompson. Jake requires no work permit to play in the UK and is a product the UK development system. He is also yards ahead ability-wise of any of our local U23 players and yet he is one of many fighting hard to earn his place in the real world of pro soccer. My advice is that unless your “next Dwight” son can match Jake for ability and has a European passport or Green Card, then make sure he knows how to read, write and spell well enough to maintain a 2.0 GPA and meet NCAA standards.
Finally Saga Pinto, I have a prediction for forumites who still believe that T&T belongs at the world stage. Sorry to bust your bubble, but it will be another 20 years at least before T&T qualifies for another world cup at any level. My advice is to stock up on Prozac. Until then, I want to encourage you to continue contributing to the forum. It has been a source of much comic relief for me.
He did say to me the nay sayers go come out in droves.....
88
Football / Re: Interesting Observation From a Once Loyal T&T U20 Parent,Enjoy!!!!!
« on: April 05, 2011, 07:38:38 PM »wow
fari this revelation could'nt have come at a better time in my opinion.....
89
Football / Interesting Observation From a Once Loyal T&T U20 Parent,Enjoy!!!!!
« on: April 05, 2011, 07:26:19 PM »
Saga Pinto
The last time I shared a comment on TT football was just before the U17 team went to Korea. At that time I think some of your colleagues on the SWF felt that I was writing in defense of my son. Truth be told, I was in part. However my comments were also an attempt to share a perspective which at the time I don't think the majority grasped. Maybe after the perceived failure of current U17 and U20 teams, it will now make more sense to you.
I have read with great amusement the comments made on the forum after the U20 team's 5 nil loss to Mexico. Some forumites are blaming the coach, others blame the players, some say it is Jack's fault (poor Jack) others think its the lack of a development system. Ready for this? The answers is (d) None of the above. The real culprits for this big let down are the fans, particularly those on this forum and their foolish expectations. Hear me out before you stone me.
The problem with you folks is that you harbor unrealistic expectations. “We going Brazil” Really?
Your unrealistic expectations are based on what I consider to be 3 fluke occurrences:
1 Senior team qualification for Germany( fluke).
2. U17 Qualification or Korea (fluke)
3. U20 Qualification for Egypt (also a fluke).
Fluke occurrences are no basis for building a sustainable business model. In each of the above cases we qualified for the WC on the last goal in the last game. I am not a knowledgeable soccer fan so I may get names and times mixed up, but I seem to remember Dennis Lawrence (of all people) scoring a once-in-a-lifetime header to get us to Germany in the last do or die game, (how many headers has he scored in his career?). Young Molino scored one goal in the last do or die game against Jamaica to get us to South Korea and if I remember correctly, Sean De Silva scored one goal to get us to Egypt. Imagine scoring one single goal in a 3 or 4 game tournament and qualifying for the U20 world cup. Teams that have the right to be disappointed by a 5-0 result at that level, are those who have earned the right to be there by consistent performance. T&T lost all 3 games in Korea conceding 15 goals and scoring 1. We lost in Germany (conceding 5?) and drew one in Egypt (conceding 5?) for a total tally of about 25 against and 2 for. When the US embarrassed us last time with a 3 nil cut ass, men on the forum wanted to die. Did you really expect a different result? The problem is that fans have deluded themselves into thinking that these flukes are a norm, so when we collect 5 from a world class team like Mexico, everybody upset.
This delusion exists at many levels, not just with the fans. Some of the coaches themselves are infected with the madness. When we were in South Korea for the U17 tournament, I had a brief chat with Anton Corneal at the players hotel the day before the first game against Ghana. I asked him how the boy were feeling and if he had worked out the approach to the game. He said that the approach was all out attack and we were going to run the Ghanians into the ground. He predicted a TT win by 3 clear goals. Now I am no football coach, but that sounded like sheer madness to me. All out attack Anton? You must be mad. I told him that I heard that Ghana selected the final 20 players by lining up their best 40 and releasing the lions. Anton didn't find that funny at all. I said to a friend of mine later, “Chris, we getting 5.” So said so done. T&T persisted with this “attack with full force” lunacy throughout the tournament as if our opponents were the underdogs instead of us. Talk about delusional.
Now, I don't mind if the fans and coaches delude themselves. Fans and coaches really don't really have much to lose. The TTFF is hell-bent on hiring expensive coaches thinking that it will make a difference and since they have money to burn, every coach will promise them all sorts of miracles and take their money.
I am most concerned that the madness of unrealistic expectations has also infected the players, their parents and handlers. Every little boy who gets called to a TT youth team begins to dream of being the next Dwight or Russel or Shaka. Parents who see their son dribble through the unskilled competition at the trial stages, pretty soon begin to believe that crap. What the players and parents don't realizes that York, Latapy and Hislop, in a T&T context, were also flukes. These 3 happened to possess the innate talent that none of our current youth players have. The problem is that some people, including certain idiotic local coaches, make these young players and parents believe that it could happen to them too. They don't realize that, apart from the dynamic trio, the other TT players who are currently playing overseas football for real money, (Kenwene, Carlos, Stern etc) are by international standards, mediocre at best and could drop out of reckoning any day. Yet all these parents think that their son is special and that they will make it big like Dwight.
Experience does not support this expectation. We had the same bunch of players make it to 2 youth world cups, U17 and U20. Many of the parents who went to Korea were genuinely expecting that their sons would be discovered by foreign scouts and plucked from obscurity like Dwight was. How many of them have been so lucky? None. If you go back to my email to you before the U17 world cup, I picked just one player to make it big, Daniel Cyrus. I still have a hope for him, that is, if his genius agent Mr Look Loy doesn't screw it up for him. The other players with youth world cup experience who have banked their futures on pro football, are, with the exception of Primus, “earning their living” in that poor excuse for a pro league in T&T, waiting for some fairy god-father to take them away to Europe or the MLS. They don't realize that the reason they cant break in to the big times is that they just don't have the talent. Every one of them (except Cyrus) who has been to overseas trials and has returned empty handed. Incidentally, where is Jamal Gay now?
I want to thank Touches and Jah Goal for opening my eyes to the harsh realities of being a soccer parent. Their comments on my son's skill level years ago, caused me to re-evaluate what I was led to believe by certain supposedly well informed persons. After a careful review of specific criteria, I concluded that the chances that my son (or any of the other U17 players) had of “going pro” (outside of the TT Pro league) were remote at best. This certainly was not the lotto that I wanted to gamble his future on. I began to focus him on using his soccer talent as a ticket to get a free education. So far, he is not doing too badly with a 3.7 GPA and is currently preparing for the LSAT to enter Law school. My role has changed from being his football manager to his academic manager and it is my job to make sure that he stays focused. I hope that Leston Paul, Sean De Silva, Stephen Knox, Qian Grosvner, Uriah Bentick and the other few who are on scholarships in the US, understand that the real value of their soccer talent is to get free education and not play the ass in school, as most young men tend to.
It may appear that I am presenting an unfairly pessimistic and negative view of our talent pool, so I am providing you with a free acid test to assess potential pro prospects. Here it is...Jake Thompson. Jake requires no work permit to play in the UK and is a product the UK development system. He is also yards ahead ability-wise of any of our local U23 players and yet he is one of many fighting hard to earn his place in the real world of pro soccer. My advice is that unless your “next Dwight” son can match Jake for ability and has a European passport or Green Card, then make sure he knows how to read, write and spell well enough to maintain a 2.0 GPA and meet NCAA standards.
Finally Saga Pinto, I have a prediction for forumites who still believe that T&T belongs at the world stage. Sorry to bust your bubble, but it will be another 20 years at least before T&T qualifies for another world cup at any level. My advice is to stock up on Prozac. Until then, I want to encourage you to continue contributing to the forum. It has been a source of much comic relief for me.
The last time I shared a comment on TT football was just before the U17 team went to Korea. At that time I think some of your colleagues on the SWF felt that I was writing in defense of my son. Truth be told, I was in part. However my comments were also an attempt to share a perspective which at the time I don't think the majority grasped. Maybe after the perceived failure of current U17 and U20 teams, it will now make more sense to you.
I have read with great amusement the comments made on the forum after the U20 team's 5 nil loss to Mexico. Some forumites are blaming the coach, others blame the players, some say it is Jack's fault (poor Jack) others think its the lack of a development system. Ready for this? The answers is (d) None of the above. The real culprits for this big let down are the fans, particularly those on this forum and their foolish expectations. Hear me out before you stone me.
The problem with you folks is that you harbor unrealistic expectations. “We going Brazil” Really?
Your unrealistic expectations are based on what I consider to be 3 fluke occurrences:
1 Senior team qualification for Germany( fluke).
2. U17 Qualification or Korea (fluke)
3. U20 Qualification for Egypt (also a fluke).
Fluke occurrences are no basis for building a sustainable business model. In each of the above cases we qualified for the WC on the last goal in the last game. I am not a knowledgeable soccer fan so I may get names and times mixed up, but I seem to remember Dennis Lawrence (of all people) scoring a once-in-a-lifetime header to get us to Germany in the last do or die game, (how many headers has he scored in his career?). Young Molino scored one goal in the last do or die game against Jamaica to get us to South Korea and if I remember correctly, Sean De Silva scored one goal to get us to Egypt. Imagine scoring one single goal in a 3 or 4 game tournament and qualifying for the U20 world cup. Teams that have the right to be disappointed by a 5-0 result at that level, are those who have earned the right to be there by consistent performance. T&T lost all 3 games in Korea conceding 15 goals and scoring 1. We lost in Germany (conceding 5?) and drew one in Egypt (conceding 5?) for a total tally of about 25 against and 2 for. When the US embarrassed us last time with a 3 nil cut ass, men on the forum wanted to die. Did you really expect a different result? The problem is that fans have deluded themselves into thinking that these flukes are a norm, so when we collect 5 from a world class team like Mexico, everybody upset.
This delusion exists at many levels, not just with the fans. Some of the coaches themselves are infected with the madness. When we were in South Korea for the U17 tournament, I had a brief chat with Anton Corneal at the players hotel the day before the first game against Ghana. I asked him how the boy were feeling and if he had worked out the approach to the game. He said that the approach was all out attack and we were going to run the Ghanians into the ground. He predicted a TT win by 3 clear goals. Now I am no football coach, but that sounded like sheer madness to me. All out attack Anton? You must be mad. I told him that I heard that Ghana selected the final 20 players by lining up their best 40 and releasing the lions. Anton didn't find that funny at all. I said to a friend of mine later, “Chris, we getting 5.” So said so done. T&T persisted with this “attack with full force” lunacy throughout the tournament as if our opponents were the underdogs instead of us. Talk about delusional.
Now, I don't mind if the fans and coaches delude themselves. Fans and coaches really don't really have much to lose. The TTFF is hell-bent on hiring expensive coaches thinking that it will make a difference and since they have money to burn, every coach will promise them all sorts of miracles and take their money.
I am most concerned that the madness of unrealistic expectations has also infected the players, their parents and handlers. Every little boy who gets called to a TT youth team begins to dream of being the next Dwight or Russel or Shaka. Parents who see their son dribble through the unskilled competition at the trial stages, pretty soon begin to believe that crap. What the players and parents don't realizes that York, Latapy and Hislop, in a T&T context, were also flukes. These 3 happened to possess the innate talent that none of our current youth players have. The problem is that some people, including certain idiotic local coaches, make these young players and parents believe that it could happen to them too. They don't realize that, apart from the dynamic trio, the other TT players who are currently playing overseas football for real money, (Kenwene, Carlos, Stern etc) are by international standards, mediocre at best and could drop out of reckoning any day. Yet all these parents think that their son is special and that they will make it big like Dwight.
Experience does not support this expectation. We had the same bunch of players make it to 2 youth world cups, U17 and U20. Many of the parents who went to Korea were genuinely expecting that their sons would be discovered by foreign scouts and plucked from obscurity like Dwight was. How many of them have been so lucky? None. If you go back to my email to you before the U17 world cup, I picked just one player to make it big, Daniel Cyrus. I still have a hope for him, that is, if his genius agent Mr Look Loy doesn't screw it up for him. The other players with youth world cup experience who have banked their futures on pro football, are, with the exception of Primus, “earning their living” in that poor excuse for a pro league in T&T, waiting for some fairy god-father to take them away to Europe or the MLS. They don't realize that the reason they cant break in to the big times is that they just don't have the talent. Every one of them (except Cyrus) who has been to overseas trials and has returned empty handed. Incidentally, where is Jamal Gay now?
I want to thank Touches and Jah Goal for opening my eyes to the harsh realities of being a soccer parent. Their comments on my son's skill level years ago, caused me to re-evaluate what I was led to believe by certain supposedly well informed persons. After a careful review of specific criteria, I concluded that the chances that my son (or any of the other U17 players) had of “going pro” (outside of the TT Pro league) were remote at best. This certainly was not the lotto that I wanted to gamble his future on. I began to focus him on using his soccer talent as a ticket to get a free education. So far, he is not doing too badly with a 3.7 GPA and is currently preparing for the LSAT to enter Law school. My role has changed from being his football manager to his academic manager and it is my job to make sure that he stays focused. I hope that Leston Paul, Sean De Silva, Stephen Knox, Qian Grosvner, Uriah Bentick and the other few who are on scholarships in the US, understand that the real value of their soccer talent is to get free education and not play the ass in school, as most young men tend to.
It may appear that I am presenting an unfairly pessimistic and negative view of our talent pool, so I am providing you with a free acid test to assess potential pro prospects. Here it is...Jake Thompson. Jake requires no work permit to play in the UK and is a product the UK development system. He is also yards ahead ability-wise of any of our local U23 players and yet he is one of many fighting hard to earn his place in the real world of pro soccer. My advice is that unless your “next Dwight” son can match Jake for ability and has a European passport or Green Card, then make sure he knows how to read, write and spell well enough to maintain a 2.0 GPA and meet NCAA standards.
Finally Saga Pinto, I have a prediction for forumites who still believe that T&T belongs at the world stage. Sorry to bust your bubble, but it will be another 20 years at least before T&T qualifies for another world cup at any level. My advice is to stock up on Prozac. Until then, I want to encourage you to continue contributing to the forum. It has been a source of much comic relief for me.
90
Football / Re: youth program is a waste
« on: April 02, 2011, 09:31:14 PM »Jack is not an idiot. He is one of the wealthiest men in the Caribbean and one of the most powerful sports executives on the planet. And will act as the right honourable Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago next week while Kamla is out of the country.
For decades we sat by and watched as this man consumed everything in his path to money, power and infamy. We even elected him to high office. We are the idiots.
Wow well f**king said my brother I have been tempted twice to leave this board permanently but is intelligent guys like you who keep me from making that decision every so often.I hear the same shit day in day out and what do we have to show for it,a greedy lying sack of shit in jack warner.
This site is an avenue to vent and comment talk some shit read a good article but at the end of the day we're powerless when it comes to the TTFF and jack warner and as zandolie says knowing all that we know about jack we still vote for him and put him in office,is anybody really listening it just sums up the kind of people we are no guts no balls.......