Hitting and hoping
By Fazeer Mohammed (Trinidad Express)
Can we recapture the spirit of 1989?
We're certainly trying to get back to the past, given the almost wholesale backward-looking changes effected by Francisco Maturana for tomorrow's potentially decisive World Cup qualifier in Guatemala.
Oh, and please note that I have written "backward-looking" and not "backward" as there is a significant difference in meaning.
Yes indeed, it's not just the issue of the return of the aging trio of Russell Latapy, Dwight Yorke-the two survivors from our only senior national team victory in Guatemala more than 19 years ago-and Stern John. It's that this is a team built on desperation, not methodical planning, which is hardly the modus operandi you would expect at the semi-final stage of a World Cup qualifying campaign a mere 28 months after savouring the game's ultimate global stage in Germany.
For Wednesday evening's warm-up 9-0 mauling of an inept Dominican Republic side at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, the starting 11 featured only four players (Carlos Edwards, Cyd Gray, Makan Hislop and Keon Daniel) who were also on the field for the kick-off of our previous game at this semi-final stage of the CONCACAF campaign, the embarrassing 3-0 loss to the United States in Bridgeview, Illinois, four weeks ago.
So there's no point saying anything about the pitfalls of hitting the panic button. Man, that button mash-up in pieces right now, and really, we all have to hope that this celebrated pick-up side will be able to draw on the wealth of experience to accomplish what consistency, discipline and a proper structure would probably have achieved already.
Some, including genuine football fans, not the fly-by-night "where-the-Stadium-is-again?" types, actually believe that the best long-term interests of the national game will be served by falling out of the World Cup reckoning this time around as quickly as possible, for two reasons.
One is that hanging on for the next, and then the next, do-or-die game only sustains unrealistic hopes. The other is that reaching the end of the road earlier than expected will prompt a focus on the real challenges facing local football.
But the evidence following successive failed efforts prior to Germany '06 suggests exactly the opposite. In fact, it can be argued that the nearer the miss, the more bacchanalian the aftermath, as the headline-grabbing developments following the November 19, 1989 loss to the Americans will attest.
Instead of drinking fever grass or taking a senna purge, we opt for more palatable, quick-fix measures which achieve nothing for the long-term health and sustenance of the nation's most popular sport.
Therefore, in the absence of anything suggesting the germination of a trend towards a more structured and process-oriented system, we just have to, as they would do in a Twenty20 cricket match, keep hitting and hoping, for at the end of the day, we all enjoy the success of our own, even if that immediate enjoyment is tempered by a gloomier big picture.
In these circumstances, a win in Guatemala City would be a fantastic effort and put us back in pole position to advance from Group A, along with the United States, for next year's final round of qualification.
A draw would also be very commendable, leaving the Guatemalans in second spot, but only by virtue of a better goal-difference.
However, with the Yanks coming to town and the Central Americans going to Havana to face cellar-placed Cuba next Wednesday, we could be left with too much to do in the last game against the Cubans, even as the Guatemalans are taking on the daunting challenge of the Americans on their home turf.
It's tough to gauge our chances tomorrow night on the basis of the annihilation of the Dominican Republic, for they were not even a mediocre test. Still, putting nine goals past any national side must be a positive for the team's confidence and, if nothing else, Jason Scotland and Cornell Glen, the hat-trick men of two days ago, should be very sharp in front of goal.
But the problem, as we all know, is really the alertness in front of our own custodian, especially when it comes to dealing with aerial crosses from the flanks and dead-ball situations.
Talking big and bold about how the best place to defend is in the other team's penalty area is all well and good, except that all it may take is one or two incisive strikes through a suspect defence to have us chanting the usual lament about what could have been.
Given that the plan (if it can be called that) of almost complete defence in the last qualifier against the USA was such an abysmal failure, it will be more than a little interesting to see the Trinidad and Tobago tactics in the opening minutes at the Estadio Mateo Flores and whether Maturana will have both Latapy and Yorke on the field at the same time, especially as we can expect pace and pressure from a Guatemalan side that knows victory will be a giant step towards the final phase of qualification.
Interesting, isn't it, that right to the very end of the 1989 campaign, then coach "Gally" Cummings was reluctant to have the same pair on the field together for tactical reasons, despite their obvious talent? Now it's age and lack of speed that will be among the key considerations for Maturana in determining how to utilise them.
History repeated you say? In this case, let's hope so, at least as far as August 20, 1989 was concerned.
