Is the T&T Pro League benefiting from the CONCACAF Champions League?
By Alvin Corneal (T&T Guardian)
The answer is basically in the positive, only because it invites our club teams to enjoy the environment of playing away as opposed to home.
It also addresses the challenges which professional players face when the intensity of the matches consist more than just effort, but several programmed tactics which are often the basis for success in the major teams.
Having said that, the visiting teams which have travelled to Trinidad so far, have left our fans with a confused state of mind. The matches between our two top Pro league teams W Connection and Central FC, against Santos of Mexico and Los Angeles Galaxy of USA, which were played at the Hasely Crawford Stadium a few days ago, may well have sent some direct messages for the country’s quality of football.
I have seen these two matches where the local clubs were very much within chances of actually winning the encounters, but lacked the finishing drive which often take successful teams to their desired results.
W Connection took the field with a relatively young team and while they were outplayed in the first half, their improved drive towards the opponents goal was good enough to bring them victory, had it not been for lack of composure by the inexperienced forwards when confronted with easy chances.
However, the match which attracted the attention of the fans was LA Galaxy against Central FC.
Coach Ross Russell of Central, seemed to have brought his team into this match expecting a star studded cast, only to realise that there were no appearances from Steven Gerrard, Giovani Dos Santos, or Robbie Keane, a situation which should have opened their appetites for a great opportunity to get a home victory.
To my mind, the decision made by the former US national coach Bruce Arena and his staff was rather strange for many reasons. The first is that professional clubs should realize that only the best players draw crowds at matches, especially in the case of marketing the sport.
The omission of the three players caused the fans to be disappointed and maybe feel disrespected by their opponents.
Our most important stage for progress in the game lies in the champion’s league where our top players can rub shoulders with others from different parts of the world and also test the quality of our national stars who are in readiness for international tournaments.
And when Willis Plaza scored the first goal, a sense of joy for our people was in keeping with the attempt that the Pro League administrators would wish to see some victories in this competition.
The go ahead goal for Central made a serious impact on Coach Arena, whose body language has always been easy to recognise, especially when his players are not coping well with the situation.
His emotions tend to focus on every referee’s decision, as if they were making mistakes against his team.
However, it was the speed of Plaza, the guile of the highly talented, but inconsistent Ataulla Guerra and master mind Marvin Oliver, who caused the LA’s coaching bench to stand and move anxiously in their restricted areas shouting for an equaliser and better display of the cohesive methods of play when their stars are around.
At the end of it all, the sweet words of the coaches from Santos and Los Angeles come to us as though they believe that T&T are reaching to the level of the teams in the MLS.
Maybe. But if they thought so, why then did they not bring their best players so that our fans could have enjoyed seeing some of their favourite foreign stars and also view the type of competition which we are capable of providing.
The Pro League CEO Dexter Skeene took their comments seriously and showered his congratulations, justifiably so, to the persons who started the challenging venture of getting a professional league off the ground.
Yes, we are progressing, but there is much more work to be done, a topic which I will share with our readers in due course.
