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Messages - Trini

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31
Football / Re: 2018 CONCACAF World Cup Qualifiers Thread
« on: March 28, 2016, 08:00:53 PM »
Anyone else concerned about this USA vs Guatemala game.  All USA have to do is win.  Why is it so hard.  Making the group unnecessarily complicated.
Yes this result just opened up the group and it can make our final 2 games very interesting.

We need the U.S. to beat up Guatemala. If that game draw tomorrow night, we cld end up with 3 teams on 11 pts. And our goal difference rel poor.
We need to have this wrapped up before the away game vs USA.

32
Football / Re: We need to learn how to play at home.
« on: November 16, 2015, 01:32:27 PM »
Ha, even I was telling people we unbeaten at home in years, but the reality is we play so few games at the HCS it is very misleading.
More impressive is the current unbeaten streak we are on. Confidence brings on more of the same, which is a critical thing for historic T&T teams.

As I was watching the game last Friday, the game vs El Salvador in the 2010 HEX came back to mind. We were 2-0 up very surprisingly in the very first game of the round, AWAY in Central America, then Stern miss a penalty that would have sealed it...But we know what happen after and the rest of the tournament was a disaster, its like we never recover from the let-down of that game.
This team seems to have very good mental strength - comeback vs mexico, and now winning 2 straight games in Central America, where its usually very hard for us.

On the issue of playing at home, I agree with the general observation that we need to do better, but I think this issue is rooted in out style of play.

 When we matchup against decent opposition with 11 men behind the ball, we always struggle to play against them. ALWAYS.
But give us an athletic style, running counter attack game, and we will look sometimes like we could take on the best in the region anytime.

When we play at home, opposing teams inevitably come and play in their own half and on the counter. So we struggle.
When we play away, roles are reversed and now we play to our strengths of counter-attacking.

We need to do like these teams in the Champs League - its almost like 2 separate teams depending on location. Not separate in terms of players, but be flexible and tactically good enough to play very different styles.

I suspect when we play at home, its as if the players believe they need to play a certain way, ie on the front foot. And doing that vs St Vincent is a totally different proposition than doing it vs the USA.

The other issue is the fans - Def agree we need some more of this, mainly to spur our players on more, truth be told we may have the most welcoming and non-intimidating stadium, culture and overall experience of all the top teams in the region. But same way the national team stepping up recently, the fans have to play their part now and perform better as well..

33
Football / Re: Soca Warriors, USA tangle in Group C for 2018 World Cup
« on: September 12, 2015, 01:27:31 PM »
Wow, our football has finally reached.

Man saying we have "inferiority complex" if we go looking for results with caution vs the USA yes lol.

Allyuh men feel CONCACAF WCQ is some FIFA videogame...

Glad allyuh is not the coach of the Warriors.

34
Football / Re: Soca Warriors, USA tangle in Group C for 2018 World Cup
« on: September 11, 2015, 11:18:44 AM »
2 of the 3 most difficult games are up first.

Tricky start. And we all know how we need confidence to move forward.

2 points from these 2 games must be the minimum.

Just as important as getting points is denying the opposition extra points, esp Guatemala in that first game. They are our direct competition for that second spot in the group.

Over the last few WCQ Semi final rounds, average is about 11-12 points to get out safely. 6 vs St Vincent and  4 vs Guatemala is required at least. Anything off the US is gravy.

What we should be aiming for though is to get something from the US at home as well, cause they in a bit of downturn at the moment. But u could be sure that they will be back soon.

The other thing we learnt from the GC is how tired we can look playing 2 games in 4 days., esp when the first one takes a lot out of us...we hadda plan properly for this.

This is the group of death, but its also not the best fixture lineup for us. The US will be licking their chops for their first home game vs St Vincent.

35
Football / Re: Why does November 19 resonate more than November 16?
« on: August 19, 2015, 11:49:41 AM »
Its the "what if" and "shock" factor...

If we had gone on to Italia 90, our football would have taken off on another level, as it was the golden generation of the late 80's and 90's players, U-20 WC etc. It took us 16 years to recover from that heartbreak, just like it took 16 years to recover from Haiti 74.

We were also supposedly so much better than the US, and end up not only not winning, as were expected to blow them out, and not even drawing, but losing to a real fluksey lob goal..And at home.

In 2006 WCQ, once we got the playoff spot vs Bahrain, we were the favourites over a 2-leg tie. We took care of business.

36
Football / Football Heads - Answer me this one
« on: July 18, 2015, 05:08:45 PM »
15 years ago, T&T played Mexico in the Gold Cup first round. BSC was the coach. We had on paper, perhaps the best team in a decade:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000_CONCACAF_Gold_Cup_squads#Trinidad_and_Tobago

This was the era when we had our longest unbeaten streak in history, and playing some awesome football under BSC. For the first time ever I saw a Trinidad team play with no fear and attack Mexico all game. Naive, but entertaining, because we had the players to do so.

Needless to say we lost the game 0-4. Rafa Marquez I think scored the first goal for them, dont think he was quite at Barca yet.

But the thing I remember about that game was although we got beat bad on the records, the game was a different story. Many people were saying the game could have ended 4-4 if we had some luck. Remember a few key misses, Yorke penalty retake, etc. We went on to get 3rd place that competition. BSC as we all know was fired by Warner, saying he was too naive in his approach and T&T football shook his head as we were playing the best ball we had played in years.

Fast forward now 15 years later and check the result of the last game vs Mexico.
All things being equal, and no disrespect to the current team, these players would barely shine the boots of that 2000 squad in terms of individual pedigree.

So what is different now? Has Mexico fallen so badly?
Do we now have a much better TEAM of 11?
2015 luck vs 2000 luck?

37
Football / Re: Most entertaining game allyuh ever see T&T play?
« on: July 18, 2015, 05:05:44 PM »
T&T vs Norway, 1997 I think.
0-2 down early. Latas went on one of his Jordan-esque performances to win the game 3-2 in the Oval.
Given the wider context (Norway ranked 4th in the world at the time), perhaps the most impressive result we have ever had, up there with the sweden 06 game.

38
What allyuh think about the latest action there?

I see the world in uproar against Israel tactics and innocents being killed in Gaza.

Am I the only one who remembering the 3 yutes Hamas kidnap last month and killed and start sending rockets over into Israel?

Before this it was recent relative calm.

I know it's pointless to say who started it in this war, but at some point Palestine need to control it's people too.


39
Football / Re: What can we learn from Costa Rica?
« on: July 20, 2014, 11:41:10 AM »
Sill think Panama is not ambitious enough. For all their youth accomplishments they still have not produced the history of pedigree players as us and gone to a wc. And we still seem to match up well against them. For some reason they are very competitive in concacaf but we still seem to have their number. They looked awful against Brazil too recently, much worse than us against Argentina.

If we are to use the UEFA Champions League as analogy for Concacaf,

Mexico wld be Real Madrid/Barca
usa wld be Bayern Munich or Man UtD
Costa Rica wld be Milan
Honduras wld be PSG or Chelsea

Trinidad will be Porto.

Panama in my opinion  is Atletico or man city.
Jamaica is Celtic.

How do we win the champions league again??

40
Hart looks at senior team future as T&T prepare for Gold Cup qualifiers.
By Shaun Fuentes (TTFA).


We were right into the game up until half time. Iran were not better than us at all but they were better prepared and they were physically better prepared and better in the air,”



Hope Shaun putting words in his mouth and he didn't actually say this.

41
Football / What can we learn from Costa Rica?
« on: July 19, 2014, 01:36:19 PM »
Costa Rica is the perfect case study for our football program to try to emulate - similar scale small-population (<5 mil) and regional relevance history. They qualified for the first time in 1990 when we should have been accompanying them. Since then, they missed the next 2 WC's in the 90's but got back on track and qualified for 3 of the next 4. This all culminated with their quarter final run in this WC.

So as a nation, what has CR done that we can learn from?

They could have easily turned out into one of the one hit wonders like Jamaica, Canada, Cuba, and hell even T&T it seems...

But what is the reason that they got back on track and have now established themselves as the bonafide number 3 team in the region? Is it down to the raw talent pool that is born there, or more down to the administration? 


In my field of work, success-failure analyses are critical to keep improving, do we have an effort focused on studies like this?

I would imagine it falls in the Technical Director's shop. Do we know what these guys do in fine detail in terms of their everyday running of their football?

Or do we simply rely on our "own way" of doing something? Are we too proud to establish links with the likes of CR, Mexico, Honduras etc to learn from them...

If we fail to qualify for 2018, we can officially be regarded as a one hit team, or a one-generation team
to put it more positively, ie wait once every generation for a golden crop and simultaneous opponents dip in form to make a real run at the WC.

Since I know myself, I know CR beating us very badly in youth matches. My only memory of us ever beating them at senior level is the Gold Cup extra time win in 2000 I think. They are one of the few teams ever to have beaten Mexico in Mexico City. And they usually split their series with the US.

This is the team we need to train our guns on to emulate.

If we are to ever return to a World Cup, it is their spot we need to take.


42
Football / Re: My facebook post on TnT.
« on: July 17, 2014, 12:38:27 PM »
Well said BM.

Wrote similar thing on my FB Monday Morning. Very Very big remainder of the year coming up for the Warriors..

I hope if and when T&T playing Brazil in some game in Miami in 2 years time, man who dont even know the name of we captain running down and taking tickets from true supporters.

43
Football / Re: CONCACAF to Lobby for Four World Cup Spots
« on: July 11, 2014, 06:01:17 PM »
There should be an automatic spot for the CFU champion vs Oceania.

A good cycle Jamaica/Trinidad/Cuba/Haiti will be competitive in a World Cup.

Plus it wld add great color, flair and storyline for the World Cup marketing.

44
Football / Re: Soca Warriors, TTFF to face T&T Courts
« on: July 11, 2014, 01:15:26 PM »
In giving them this money, Govt should have put in a clause in there for the players not to go after the federation, *cough* Jack Warner.
But as Insider correctly states, this is a perfect opportunity to play the situation.

Sancho - I agree with your principle brudda,

But I assume once the TTFA comes out with all the relevant documentation to show the now empty bank accounts that were used for cash flows back in 2006.... and who had access to it, the case will be dropped against them right?

Because at that point, your point would have been made for all to see what really happened, and if the court action continues, it moves beyond the "principle" card that the players have been playing thus far....

I hope you not believing that you will ever get any money from JW. You way too smart for that. Just making your point in this case will be a victory of epic proportions.

If this is not political interference with football, I dont know what is nah..


45
Football / Re: How do you teach a player to be smart?
« on: June 11, 2014, 12:04:39 PM »
Same way we talk about physical fitness, there is also mental fitness.

Every single game we play against top level teams, in the first few mins we do not look overmatched. Even the last game vs Argentina. Even Ray Hudson was saying we play a nice little tiki-taka when we ready....We were passing around the ball nicely in little zones, looked composed etc. But as time goes on, it wears down. In our case against that level of opponent, it was about 15-20 mins.

When you play under high pressure and lose fitness, both your body and mind shuts down and you revert to memory.

Physical Fitness loss = technique goes away.
Mental Fitness loss = mistakes/bad choices that bring on more pressure.

Combine these 2 and you see why we always look like we on edge vs the USA.

Both physical and mental fitness, at these elite levels,  are not built on beach runs and doing football laps, it is only built on the field playing high level games REGULARLY.

Repetition is the key.

World class players have faced every single scenario possible on a field at the highest level. And that experience makes them look more composed, keep their guile and maintain technique longer.

This is why playing regularly is so important as a team, and why managers always talking about players being "match fit" even when in training they would appear physically fit.

46
Football / Re: 'Soca Warriors' ends South American tour winless.
« on: June 09, 2014, 02:05:00 PM »
good post Touches.

47
Football / Re: Thread for the T&T vs Argentina Game (4-Jun-2014)
« on: June 06, 2014, 09:31:00 AM »
Contro - Feb 13th, 2000, CONCACAF Gold Cup.
Mexico vs Trinidad.
Did you see that game?

This is what happens when you play with too much naïvety.
We went out to attack Mexico as equals, first time I had seen us do that, and while we played brave and looked very enterprising, we got a licking and a lesson.

mental strength must be placed in the context of wider reality. Here we are arguing about how we performed vs full strength Argentina in Buenos Aires lol.

................
10th June, 2006 - Trinidad vs Sweden. This is what happens when you play within your limits, understanding the broader context of reality.

.................

At this moment in time, we are levels of class below Argentina. You can sit and type words in theory about how to approach the game. Its not you walking out onto that pitch and wondering how in God's name you gonna stop the best play on the planet, and his sidekicks, in front a partisan crowd.

if we played like this against Honduras, then I would have a big problem..



48
Football / Re: Brave Warriors fall to Argentine.
« on: June 06, 2014, 09:10:02 AM »
so when them karate men bow to each other before a fight, thats not respect?

Sometimes I think we forget a virtue called humility.

49
Football / Re: In 2 years we will be a top team.... IF !!
« on: June 06, 2014, 09:08:04 AM »
Good stuff Sam. Like point 5.

So lemme put a different spin on it.

What are our expectations as a nation? Given our history, level of public support, talent etc..? Do we expect to qualify for every WC, go to Buenos Aires and run a top team to the ends? Or do we hope to make it to WCQ semis and get past Bermuda and Guyana? Do we expect to play top level opposition every FIFA date? Do we expect to solve the financial woes and actually spend money behind the team to truly develop?

So some things that perhaps we never come out and say directly, because they may be closer to the thruth even if they may upset people:

1) Money. Money. Money. Unless we solve the financial woes, and men in power from Govt to the administrators shed the panties they wearing and dish the egos they have, we will  never reach our true potential. It all comes down to the will of the administrators. It has become too personal, classic crab in a barrel mentality, of a young, ex-colonial population. Lets face it, if we dont have the money to spend behind the team, we will not succeed. Its like everything else in life. You cant expect to bring a Cortina to race a Lambo and expect to win.

At that point you rely on hope rather than expectation, which is what T&T football has been since ~ 2008. As it stands, we have a coach who we can afford, not one who we want. Its a very big difference. every single day of preparation, its the little things that add up over years that results in a team being 1-2% better than another. You can expect to compete with a country like the US who spend >100m USD on their team a year to develop when we fighting for pennies from the Govt and cant even find certain historical accounts. It just doesnt work like that. No matter your perception of your national talent.

If we dont have money behind the team, we will never reach a higher level.

2) I see plenty men on here talking about how its all mainly down to mental attitude that you win games. While thats very important, it isnt the main thing. People who say that have not played competitive team sports against very superior opposition. And lets face it, Argentina is a few classes above us , player for player. No shame in that, just how it is.

You put this same Trini team against Anguilla, I guarantee you that we will look like a clone of Argentina. You could have all the fight in your head and positive energy, when you play against a superior team who make you play out of your comfort zone and stretch you like spandex over and over again, all that fight in your hear begins to sap away and it becomes survival. Mental is important,  but perhaps moreso against more similarly matched opponents.

3) Lets benchmark our nation as a soccer team. In my opinion I truly believe we are the 5th best team in CONCACAF.
And to me thats realistic. Sometimes its good to take stock of the reality in an unbiased way so you plan a sustainable improvement program. There should be a sub-project in place by the men who have the know how to figure out how do we compete with and take points off from Costa Rica and Honduras. The USA and Mexico are another level up, somewhere in between these previous 2 countries and the Argentina we faced Wednesday. So we can defer them to another time. But as the 5th best team in the region, what are our expectations?

The reason we made germany 2006 was a combination of factors that came together at the right time - Latapy coming back to inspire Dwight and the team, we got a top level coach, Stern going on a little run, getting Bahrain instead of a south american team, and obviously some luck along the way. If we have to depend on another lining up of similar elements, we looking at 2022WC, cause it seem we do well in 16 year spurts (1974, 1990, 2006..). thats the reality, we are an ephemeral football nation. And I truly believe the way to get to the level of beating CR and Honduras is, as Sam says - we play more consistently.

4) The players - at the end of the day it always comes down to your quality of players. The best thing in our team is a part-time striker for the team that came last in the Premiership. And we playing a team with players that play EVERY SINGLE DAY with Neymar, CR7, David Silva, Zlatan etc etc. Every single day that these fellas spend time in that environment, it adds up over time and adds to their quality.

Can you imagine how frightening it is to prepare as a coach to face Messi? So imagine the players who are tasked with covering him. There is no way to say it but he is beyond human, he does what he wants, when he wants against anybody and any team on the planet. And to be honest...My Warriors didnt make him look like such a superhuman... Lets face it, we had a golden generation in the 90's and early 2000's, this group however is not as talented YET. Nobody on this team is in the class of Jerren Nixon. And once your quality stock dips, you rely more on the structure and coach etc. Which takes us back to argument 1.

Dont berate Jan Michael, he is the best of what we have. There was a time I would turn on the tv and watch Dwight Yorke vs Shaka Hislop as the 2 standout players in a head to head Premiership game at Old Trafford. It always comes down to the players. For a small country like ours, it will always go in cycles. The flipside to that though is that between 2005-2010 we went to 2 separate youth WC's, so we should have a stock to draw from to be competitive at this time...

5) Our mentality - lets be fair here, we do not have a combative mentality in T&T. Men crying down Guerra for bowing to Messi, this is simply who we are as a people. Instead of bashing Guerra, we should bash the general public who know more about the Champions League draw than the national team itinerary. Or men who go stadium and watch you hard when you boo the opposition. Or the masses who support Beckham over their own Soca Warriors when they played head to head. If even only for passion and intensity, we do not deserve to be going any WC in front many teams in the region, even teams that we are better than (Panama, El Salvador, Jamaica).

I can assure you every single team from the semi final rounds onward look at Port of Spain as one of the best places to pick up away points. And this is sad, cause I remember a time in the late 80's and early 90's when it was just the opposite... Guerra know more about football than anyone on this forum, or journalists who write on the topic. If he can show that level of respect to a peer, I am pretty sure Messi was honoured by it. Personally i would not have done it in that setting, but I see nothing wrong with it.

---

We just need to be playing more consistently..Things will start to fall into place slowly. I remember in 1989, it seem like every week we were playing a different team, teams from South America, England, all Russia or some ex soviet teams was coming down...and it helped.
Because we do not play consistently, we do not have a philosophy on how to play.

If a team pull 11 players behind the ball against us, how do we cope? Are we just a team to defend deep and hit forward and hope that our olympic pedigree speed will make something out of nothing? Playing consistently at a high level improves football intelligence and decision making. The PFL cant equip us to do this, as much as I didnt like beenhakker's arrogant attitude, he was right about this. Same thing Klinsmann says about MLS...
I hope we get some more games before the Carib Cup..

50
Football / Re: Thread for the T&T vs Iran Game (8-Jun-2014)
« on: June 05, 2014, 10:06:37 PM »
Yea this might be a game where teams make 10 subs and man come off and come back on.

51
Football / Re: Thread for the T&T vs Iran Game (8-Jun-2014)
« on: June 04, 2014, 09:16:34 PM »
Havent seen a thread for the Iran game, so I will post here, its intriguing that we will come up against the coach who was on a shortlist for our TD job...
the reports back then were that both Pfister and Quiroz were in the runnings, then Quiroz took the Iran job as Pfister got T&T.
Just another confirmation of what money can buy you.

Pfister was on $50,000 USD a month, and that got us knocked the fack out by Guyana.
Iran paid Quieroz $$166,666.66 USD a month, and that got them to top their group with South Korea and qualify directly.


Until we get our house in order financially, we will always be in a  mode of hopefulness rather than expectancy. Plain and simple.

And sometimes we wonder why our players look so unfit in international games...


We have to be very careful regarding how we approach the balance between affordable compensation, merited compensation, sustainable compensation and deliverable value on compensation. 

As you likely appreciate, no level of compensation is guaranteed to yield a successful outcome. Even so, how formulaic is it that football is an arena in which one gets what one pays for?

Certain variables seem to render WC qualification more likely than unlikely, and I dare say that we might be attaching too much investment in the notion that compensation is definitively a controlling variable in that outcome. Other human resource and infrastructural variables must precede investment in compensation under any analysis.

I think the issue you raise is not a simplistic issue, and it strikes me as a compelling area for inquiry mapped out with data.

However, we have to apply very critical thought to the notion of escalating compensation. In the context of our national landscape (even assuming we had the deepest of pockets), my position is that there's a problematic that must be sensitive to our social reality.

You make the contrast between Pfister and Queiroz ... there are other coaches who have failed and yet received hefty compensation. What's the post-mortem then?

How much has Pfister's previous successes cost? Please consider that the heir apparent situation at Man U would probably never have materialized had Queiroz stayed there. In my view, he's a brand name coach because of the clubs with which he's been associated (and this drives his "value") but he has in fact never really delivered at the international level. On the record, Pfister, although less glamorous, can probably stake a better claim. For less.

Some good talk in dey. .
But keep in mind a brand name coach like Quieroz also will have a different impact on our players and country as a whole. It's in our nature.
If we get Guardiola I bet we wld walk on water in terms of team play even if he ain't really do nutten. It's just the mentality of our players.

And that in itself is what you pay a premium for. How you try to quantify that I don't know though.

52
Football / Re: Thread for the T&T vs Argentina Game (4-Jun-2014)
« on: June 03, 2014, 12:31:11 PM »
Argentina and football.

I have had the fortunate privilige to recently spend extended periods of time in Argentina. Naturally football comes up as the global language.

The first thing you hadda appreciate is how much Argentina loves footbal. Billboards of players litter the highways, these fellas down there are Gods. On any given day at 12noon, you see numerous players obviously attached to various clubs out in the city and hot sun running to build fitness. And sometimes I wonder why we always look so unfit when we play these top level countries. Its no wonder De Maria could take over a game in the closing stages like he did vs Atleti.

The AFA have a real bess training academy/facility right outside the airport. Looks very much like what you see on TV for the big European clubs and their training grounds.

I am pretty certain just as we will be in some culture shock, plenty of Buenos Aires will be too for the simple fact that in all my time there I see only 2 black people - both times in the airport. But thats a whole other argument I saw even discussed here on this forum Re race and Argentina. I personally never experience any negative vibes, i think its just that we will be verrrry different to what they used to down there.

They have some real bess things around the place, I know mr Lara will enjoy heself.

Buenos Aires, or the urban sprawl that they refer to as it, is easily the largest city I have ever seen in my life from the air. I think the wider city itself has like 15 million flikkin people.

You think is only Trinidad have stories of yutes in the ghetto kicking ball on the road or on a real lame field - i see some football fields over there I would think twice to park my car on that. NO wonder them men have impeccable control on good grass fields.

One of the things I really struggle with was the food. Very italian in nature I found, too much cheese and not enough taste.

....

With regard to actual football, Argentinians are as passionate about their team in tournaments just as you would expect. Lots of debate around players, coaches, etc.

From my experience they all obviously rate Messi as the best in the world. Strangely, not many rate him as highly as Maradonna.

They regard Brazil as the eternal rivals. Uruguay has nuff respect but they look on them as small brothers.

The 0-5 home loss to Colombia in the 90's is still a very sore point to any Argentinian you talk to. Its like our Nov 19th.

Their knowledge of CONCACAF is interesting. THey dont really rate anything in our region. Mexico, who I thin has had a couple good results against them in years gone by, I think they consider as a decent team, but nothing much more than a quarterfinals team. Make no mistake - they always fancy their chances of getting to WC finals. they played the US last year I think in the US and reminded me of the early part of the Trini - England WC game, where not a man from Trin was getting to even touch the ball. The US players were very much in awe of them in the first alf and got carved open very badly over and over again. But as with the US, they came out fighting second half and made a real game of it.

So you can imagine what Argentina think of Trinidad and Tobago. Most people dont know where we are, when you explain close to venezuela, they understand.

The best way I can put it... is that from their perspective, playing a game against T&T is equivalent of Trinidad playing Curacao or Montseratt before we set off to Germany 2006.
This isnt a disgrace to these caribbean countries, nor to us, its just the world pecking order. Like West Indies playing Holland in cricket.

We were obviousy chosen as the prototype for their Nigerian game. I hope we put up a real fight.
All the fight in the world dont really help you when you chasing ghosts in the River Plate, by men who are obviously in a different technical league than you. You boil down real fast. But with the right tactical approach and the game of their lives, in football you never know. But sometimes in games like these you grow up, where the game could be lost on the flight over Buenos Aires and the bus drive through the city to play a team with such a stature.

Games like these prepae you for Central America WCQ, very similar atmosphere. I have never been to a game in Buenos Aires, but the whole setup look very Mexico-city like. The higher pedigree of the opponent may be cancelled out by the fact that Buenos Aires is at sea-level.

Some of the nicest people around, but when is football, these people go crazy to the point of riot sometimes. Thank God we wont have to worry about that tomorrow.

A good display and result tomorrow will do wonders for the next few years when we play in tough places in Central America.

53
Football / Re: Thread for the T&T vs Argentina Game (4-Jun-2014)
« on: May 29, 2014, 09:40:38 PM »
Saw on soccertv.com that bein USA carrying the game live

54
Agree with Bakes, no matter what our personal opinions about marijuana, or political agendas, it matters not. Anil Roberts should be relieved of his duties immediately.

55
Football / Re: Thread for the T&T vs Argentina Game (4-Jun-2014)
« on: May 29, 2014, 10:32:42 AM »
Havent seen a thread for the Iran game, so I will post here, its intriguing that we will come up against the coach who was on a shortlist for our TD job...
the reports back then were that both Pfister and Quiroz were in the runnings, then Quiroz took the Iran job as Pfister got T&T.
Just another confirmation of what money can buy you.

Pfister was on $50,000 USD a month, and that got us knocked the fack out by Guyana.
Iran paid Quieroz $$166,666.66 USD a month, and that got them to top their group with South Korea and qualify directly.

Until we get our house in order financially, we will always be in a  mode of hopefulness rather than expectancy. Plain and simple.

And sometimes we wonder why our players look so unfit in international games...



56
Football / Re: Building for 2018
« on: May 29, 2014, 10:09:36 AM »
We not playing for no pride against Argentina, this is a very important game, as too is the Iran game.

We have a very very important tournament later this year, the caribbean Cup. We need to win, because we have not won it in forever, and soon we may be the Uruguay (forgotton team)of the Caribbean. We also need it to qualify for both the Gold Cup next year and the Copa Centenario the following year to be held in the US. If we dont win this Caribbean Cup, we have to depend on tother teams and make a decent run in the Gold Cup next year.

So these games are critical to us and our preparation. We seem to be using a core of players recently since the Guyana catastrophe, and to be honest we not doing that badly, given where we were coming from and losing to Guyana (2nd place Caribbean Cup, knockout rounds Gold Cup, 3rd place Saudi Cup and double winners vs jamaica). If we can put on 2 good displays in the next couple weeks, we will continue to build on momentum and prep for the Caribbean Cup. If we get blown out twice, we take a few steps back. Also, dont underestimate the effect of 2 good perfomances, esp in Buenos Aires, will have on our Caribbean opposition later this year. In no uncertain terms, we need to build our own momemtum and send a statement of intent.

Its very clear why we got these games, Argentina and Iran need a pre-Nigeria workout (thats pretty flattering for us I must admit).
And whther we like to admit it or not, somebody in the TTFF wukkin.

With regards to building for 2018, a lot of that success depends on getting to the Gold and Copa Cups, and a lot of getting there depends on what we do in the next few months. We aint playing for pride, we playing for very very serious stakes here.

57
Its a combination of all 3 - insecurity, inferiority and indifference.

And that right there is there fundamental reason our football team performs the way it does.

National players are simply citizens and supporters of our country who can play football.
If these three traits are pervasive in our society, guess what is gonna happen when you select 18 citizens from this stock.

How dare we criticise our national teams, when the first thing we should be doing is looking at ourselves.

Beenhakker used to hit the nail on the head all the time with his comments about the application and mindset of our footballers when he was in charge. Thats why Yorke and Latapy and Hislop were critical for him - their mentality. And people used to get vex with the man when he lambasting players and telling them if they wanna remain beach footballers, then thats the best they will ever get.

How we feel about fete and carnival is how we suppose to feel about footbal if we are to consistently compete with the likes of Honduras, COsta Rica etc. Even Jamaica, if we had their patriotic spirit, we would be a true regional force, just like if they had our natural talent.

I will never forget going to see T&T vs England and you coulda swear Trinidad was the away team in the stadium. SMH.

Imagine in Trinidad when you boo the opposition people turn up they nose at you.

Thats why we are the first place the rest of CONCACAF start looking at to pick up points on the road.

58
Football / Re: SWO spends the New Year with Stephen Hart.
« on: January 03, 2014, 01:42:37 PM »
Happy New Year everyone.

New year, new hope for the team.

Two things stood out in this interview:

1) Perception of the quality of players. The man said it right there, in black and white, what most afraid to say. Our talent pool moves in cycles, we are a small country. Once in every generation, we get a crop of world class players. 70's, then late 90's/early 2000's. We just in a dip right now.

Anyhow u try to cut and dice it, losing to Guyana in a WCQ playoff says it all. Not winning a Caribbean Cup in ages says it all. We always had all the other excuses of poor management/fields etc, its just at this time the players are not CONCACAF elite YET. And because we have been laying eggs consistently over the last few years now, you cant even put it down to bad player selection. We just dont have the same quality as before.
For two decades everyone was saying once Warner leave we would be unstoppable... Somewhere in there we forgot that we still need to rely on the actual players who play the game.

2) I hope Hart understands his limitations as well... As much as I like him in terms of his honesty, vibes and improving our program slowly, he is by no means a top level coach.

He has coached over 50 games at the top level and has won less than half of that. Is that good enough to get 15pts in the HEX?

I sincerely believe that we have better players than Canada, so I expect his win % to improve. But if we are to really achieve targets, Hart himself has to step up and improve, just like his players.  I wonder about the dynamics of him as a the coach and having Beenhakker as the overall TD. One suspects it is a veryyyy different dynamic to the one Beenhakker had with Lincoln Phillips, and may ultimately determine whether Hart is successful in implementing HIS plan.

But in saying all that, so far he has been doing well..Anytime u can beat Jamaica twice in a month, home and away that a very VERY good sign.

He has to exceed his own expectations and get the better of rivals like Klinsman, the Mexican coach and the Colombian who coahing Costa Rica who has lots of international experience and success. One wonders if we had resources, if Hart might not be the coach of the Warriors right now, Would we would have snagged Quiroz, or gone after people like Rijkaard, Bradley, Arena etc with more established successes?

I hope in planning his programme for the coming year and beyond, he appreciates that, given a variety of reasons, the perception is that T&T is one in 3 year Caribbean Champion, perennial Gold Cup participant and a Hexagonal quality team in CONCACAF and should be in that top 6 every cycle. Thats our minimmum expectation.

Anything less than that is considered bad failure. For Hart to be ultimately judged as a success, he has to get us back to that level consistently.

And we not even talking about making a serious run at the WC just yet....

59
Football / Re: Beenhakker back in charge.
« on: June 14, 2013, 07:36:56 AM »
Been saying this relentlessly, just like everything else in life, you always end up getting what you pay for. The days when we would take ex-players and throw them in as a coach when they retire and hope to compete with the best in CONCACAF are long gone. The game has totally changed. It is now so scientific and tactical in a holistic way, you need to have people who know what they doing in order to advance.

Nowadays it cost at least $50K US a month to even start the conversation to get a pedigree coach for a national team. Klinsman gets $200K and Carlos Quiros who was being eyed for T&T couple years ago gets $160K a month. You cyah take a Cortina and race a CL63..
These top coaches travel the world, attend latest workshops, do stints with top club teams, publish technical papers, follow modern scientific knowledge of the game to a tee...in other words, true students of the game...And this doesnt come cheap. No disrespect to the current coaching staff, they just havent had the experience to develop properly yet...

Anil Roberts said that there will be no investment in a coach like this UNTIL we prove ourselves and get to the HEX, lol lol. I wont even respond to that.

I am sure the 2 month thing is a mixture of funding, the timing of the Gold Cup and Beenhakker's wishes.

Our team is in shambles, makes no doubt about it.
We are extremely unfit and tactically we are poor. If u are poor tactically, other teams will take you apart and make u more unfit, thus rendering the simple basics of football like trapping, passing, thinking etc almost impossible. No wonder we always look like we chasing the game and scampering..

Plenty people here criticise Beenhakker for his tactics at the world cup, imagine that lol. Like we all have won La Liga titles with Real Madrid and taken a team to the World Cup.

While I believe this is not the best long term solution for us, its at least an attempt to do something. And he is much better than anything we have locally. Even if its for the very fact that this new generation of players will have unbridled respect for this man (his accomplishments/race etc), it will be a boost. If this man can bench latas, then all players know they hadda earn their spot.

Good move TTFF. Dont often get the chance to say that, lets prep for the Gold Cup and see how it goes and take the next step after that.. In a tournament, the aim is to not concede goals and get beaten. Beenhakker is good at this. he is also very good at making the best of what he has available. Hope he can take an average group of players cf to the 2005 bunch and do something good next month..

60
Football / Re: the way forward- the development method
« on: April 16, 2013, 11:38:18 PM »
just like the national crime epidemic, the issues of our football being in a state of stagnation is the result of many many factors...

For us to reach another WC, we need the perfect storm of a golden generation of footballers managed by a world class coach and glued together by the always necessary bit of luck.

Until we invest in a world class quality coach and give him time to develop his philosophy, we will always have the HEX as our ultimate goal. I am sure the football administrators know this, its just we cant come up with the $75,000US a month to get one of these quality coaches. So in the meantime we have to rely on the better locals to lead the team and HOPE for good things to happen.

The business community aint getting on board, because thats our culture - to jump in last minute. We just dont love football to that extent. But thats no surprise, everytime I go Argentina I see so many youths running in the midday sun building endurance along the roadways...Where u see that in Trinidad? And then we wonder why when we playing Mexico and Costa Rica their players look like Messi compared to our players who barely look like they culd trap a ball in the heat of a game.

Our football is a reflection of our society - both administrative and on the field. Look closely at Kenwyne Jones style of play for Stoke.

Saw this good article today on Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool and looking at their strategy to generate sustainable success aside from splashing out instant money - developing the philospohy on world football.

http://espnfc.com/blog/_/name/tacticsandanalysis/id/1205?cc=5901

Our football barely has an identity. I remember the days when we walked over the US in 1994 in the stadium, Norway in the oval, Martinique in that 7-2 game, Canada and Panama in that semi final round or arguably even the way we approached the game in the 2001 Gold Cup... Nowadays, both our players and coaching staff are a level below those guys...No surprise we no longer can win the Caribbean Cup.

Everybody was shouting for years if we only get rid of Jack our football will take off. That man must be laughing so bad now,,

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