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« 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.
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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..