Without Jack CONCACAF would still only have 1...possibly two spots. Without Jack there would have been no 3rd spot for Jamaica to get in 98...and no 4th spot for TnT to get in 2006. SO..... unless TnT became a better team than either the US or Mexico, there is no way we would have gotten to the WC, and by every objective measure those two teams VERY LIKELY would have progressed to the point that they're now at inspite of whatever other progress we made.
You are assuming that Jack is not a major factor in the fact that Mexico and the United States have advanced to the point that they are considered automatic qualifiers from Concacaf. Not so much in that they have advanced but we have not. Why? Blame the players, the coaches, the government? But don't blame the administration headed by Jack. We have shown at different times that we can play with Mexico. Jack was at the forefront of our football when the US rose to be a football power in Concacaf. Many would argue that player personell wise in the 80's and 90's, the crop of players from T&T were not far behind and even on par with the US players but we never truly improved.
Just another way of looking at your argument.
Blessings
LSJ...nah I considered that, however the assumption is reversed. Like others before you, you too are arguing a variant of the same position...that without Jack Trinidad's position would have been far advanced beyond where we are now. Even if I were to concede that point is there any rational basis to conclude that we would be ahead of either the US or Mexico? Hardly. Most seem ready to concede that we'd be behind Mexico, but are less gracious in conceding the lead to the US.
Many seem deceived by the notion that the US Soccer program came out of nowhere when in fact soccer has been in the US for over 160 yrs, dating back to the times of the US Civil War. The USSF in fact is only five years younger than the TTFF (I believe the TTFF was founded in 1908...with this whole centennial talk), and for all the ole talk without a doubt soccer has enjoyed greater participation (if not popularity) in the US, than it has in TnT...just looking at the numbers of people playing it. Now the percentage of US soccer fans relative to the entire US population...that percentage might be lower than in TnT, but that doesn't affect how widespread or popular the sport is...this is what most fail to understand when they look at the US as some just come on the soccer stage. The USSF was one of the earliest member federations in FIFA, and the US has had good showings at the earlier WC finals.
The thing is that they fell off the international football map until 1990, but that game in 1990 did not mark the rebirth of "soccer" in the US. You have to go back to the 1984 Olympic Games for that...and one man in particular, Alan Rothenberg, former USSF President. He was in charge of the soccer part of the olympics, and he was shrewd when it comes to marketing sports thru his involvement with the LA Lakers among other teams, and his prior involvement with NASL soccer. From that base in 1984 he put forth a ten year plan to secure the Olympics in 1994, which they did. He then used that as a launch pad for a new domestic soccer league, MLS in 1996. See it wasn't just luck, but mapping out small achieveable goals one building upon the other, to slowly make soccer a major player in the US. This is what people don't give the Americans credit for. The interest was there, but you needed a catalyst to design a plan and put it into play. American soccer was going to develop whether they beat us in 1990 or not because they were well on their way to hosting the 94 Cup by then.
So...even if you take Jack out the TnT picture, how were we to compete with all that? You could argue that having a more dedicated, smarter, innovative etc. TTFF leadership...but still, none of that would have guaranteed that we have surpassed the US or Mexico by now. So that still leaves the top two spots accounted for, and w/o Jack there likely would be no third or fourth spot because no third or fourth team has shown the type of consistency (against the top two) or enjoyed the type of results against non-CONCACAF opponents (at the WC for instance) to merit our region getting another spot.
So as for the speculative argument put forth by Mango Chow that we "inevitably" would have gotten more spots for CONCACAF is laughable. Even if the WC was expanded, more likely to get those additional spots would be the more competitive Federations such as Europe, Africa, South America and even Asia. All of them (excepting perhaps Asia) deserve another spot ahead of CONCACAF based on the performance of their teams. All of them developing 10 Drogbas and Edgar Davids for ever Warren Archibald we develop. If not for Jack's influence we ent smelling ah third spot, let alone a fourth. Without those two additional spots it would have been near impossible for TnT to qualify ahead of either the US or Mexico.
