Caledonia maintain Pro League charge.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
Petrotrin edged in Malabar.
"For years, we have had many games when we played well and lost," said Caledonia AIA assistant coach Jerry Moe, "and our only consolation was in our performance. From a coaching perspective, it is better to play ugly and win."
Caledonia remained on the heels of 2007 Pro League leaders, CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh, on Saturday night as they edged United Petrotrin at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar to stay within a point of the table toppers. But no one in the audience would volunteer to review a tape of their latest conquest.
On paper, the encounter should have offered a captivating clash between two of the country's best clubs on present form. Instead, it was a cagey affair contested by teams brimmed with passion but short on offensive punch.
It would take all day for dreadlocked Petrotrin coach Brian Williams to pull his hair out but he might have pondered the task after seeing star striker Peter Prosper to the Piarco departure lounge on Thursday. Prosper, who scored four of Petrotrin's nine goals in their last two matches, was recalled early by his Lebanese employers and his absence might have been the difference between the outfits on Saturday.
Sylvester Teesdale, who has seven league goals this term-the joint third highest tally in the Pro League-is expected to shoulder the responsibility upfront but wasted the game's best opportunity in the 63rd minute when he headed against the bar from inside the six yard box.
His new strike partner Andre Alexis, who is yet to score this season, should have done better when miscommunication between Caledonia goalkeeper Richard Reynolds and defender Howard Lowe offered him a clear sight of goal in the 21st minute. Alexis' scoffed effort was easily cleared by retreating defender Radanfah Abu Bakr.
Williams has three other strikers on his books but is so unconvinced by their present form that he opted to use central defender Devon Drayton as a makeshift forward instead for the final 23 minutes.
He could have cast an envious glance at the opposing technical area when Caledonia striker Anthony Abrams came off the bench and scored with his first meaningful touch in the 80th minute.
"The best result would have been a drawn game or maybe 1-nil to Petrotrin," Williams told the Express. "It was a very evenly contested game but I think we had the better goalscoring chances."
Petrotrin were the first team to defeat Caledonia this season-only Jabloteh have also managed three points against the "Eastern Stallions" in league combat-and they were the more assertive team in the middle of the field on Saturday.
Shabazz has regularly gushed about the importance of dreadlocked, beanpole playmaker Marvin Oliver to his team's fortune but it was Petrotrin captain Romauld Aguillera who dominated the central midfield area.
Quick, willing and composed, Aguillera set the tone for Petrotrin's resistance and the southern visitors threatened with a dipping Simeon Augustus half volley in the 44th minute while Kelvin Hernandez headed inches over the bar in the 61st minute following a Kennedy Hinkson freekick.
Two minutes later, Teesdale struck the bar after Alexis neatly headed on a deep Hernandez cross.
Caledonia responded by introducing Abrams, a Guyanese international, and Trinidad and Tobago under-23 winger Hayden Tinto-just after the hour mark-but there was little cohesion in their play.
Shabazz might have missed his midfield general Densill Theobald, if only for the willingness of the Hungary-bound player to seek out possession. Oliver lacks Theobald's bustling, energetic style but there is aesthetic value in the way he caresses the ball and he possesses a good eye for the clever, early pass.
The game seemed to be petering out into a stalemate when Oliver showed his class with one of those effortless flicks of his that routinely dismembers an opposing defence.
A crossfield pass at an awkward height seemed to present little menace but the Rastafarian checked his run and flicked the ball behind the Petrotrin defence with his forehead.
Abrams finished with a firm right footed strike that flew past Charles' outstretched right hand.
Drayton nearly fashioned an equalizer but for a desperate headed clearance by defender Dexter Franklyn over his own bar. And Caledonia held out for the result that, according to Moe, slightly flattered them.
He insisted that Caledonia can and will play better, particularly with the return of ex-national utility player Conrad Smith from trials in Brunei and Guyana under-23 striker Dwight Peters.
"I think the game deserved a draw," said Moe, "but we are happy for the win."
In a perverse way, it was the stuff that champion teams are made of.
Teams
Caledonia AIA:[/b] — Richard Reynolds, Howard Lowe, Radanfah Abu Bakr(Dexter Franklyn), Walter Moore, Sterling Arjoon, Stephan David, Marvin Oliver, Abdallah Phillips, Kareem Joseph (Hayden Tinto), Jameel Perry (Anthony Abrams).
Coach – Jamaal Shabazz
United Petrotrin: – Tristan Charles, Larry Bacchus, Simeon Augustus, Al Sinclair, Kurt Williams (Husani Thomas), Romauld Augillera, Kelvin Hernandez, Marlon Lewis (Ryan McIntosh), Andre Alexis (Devon Drayton), Kennedy Hinkson, Sylvester Teesdale.
Coach – Brian Williams
Yesterday's News
Caledonia wary of big brothers.
… Shabazz’s troops aim at Petrotrin
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).
Jamaal Shabazz gushed with excitement about his dream for the Caledonia AIA football club. It is a vision that has grown clearer since its inception in 1998 and is now shared, according to the coach, by football fans throughout the Morvant/ Caledonia community.
The Pro League and Guyana national team coach is not ready to share his dream with the public just yet but offered an analogy from the Old Testament.
“Joseph had a dream about 11 stars and the moon lying prostrate before him,” Shabazz told the Trinidad Express. “His father understood the significance of the dream—that he would be king—and told him not to tell anyone but he foolishly told his brothers who sold him into captivity…
“My players have the same dream as me but we are afraid to talk about it because other people will say ‘who are you to talk about that’. Because they feel that Caledonia are lesser mortals.”
Caledonia AIA start the 2007 Pro League Round 13 just one point adrift of leaders CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh but they are happy to avoid the spotlight for now. It should not be mistaken for a lack of ambition.
The “Eastern Stallions” face Petrotrin from 7 pm today at the Larry Gomes Stadium, Malabar and Shabazz is eager to use the opportunity to show the improvement of his squad.
Petrotrin, who are in joint sixth spot, personify the banana skin that prompted costly slips from Shabazz’s troops in their previous title quests. True to form, Caledonia ’s first loss this season came away to Petrotrin in Round Four of the league and Petrotrin coach Brian Williams promised that his charges will be hungry for three points this evening.
But Caledonia insist that the drive of their players, in particular, sets the class of 2007 apart from its predecessors.
“Before our players would only rise for the big games against the likes of Joe Public and Jabloteh and W. Connection,” said Shabazz. “This year, we have been able to keep that hunger and fire in the belly of our players more consistently no matter our opponent.”
For the first time, Caledonia has a full-time office and staff in place as well as board of directors in place to deal with “the challenges off the field that affects the performances on it”. And Shabazz credited the introduction of administrators like Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee (TTOC) general secretary Brian Lewis with helping create a more level playing field for the club.
“I always felt that if I got the chance to work with better players in a more professional environment,” said Shabazz, “we would be among the best clubs in the country. We’ve always played well but we’ve been inconsistent because we couldn’t maintain our player personnel.
“When I was arrested in Miami (for an improper passport) and saw the instability it brought the team, I realised that too much depended on me. It has been a long process for me to relinquish that total control but I realise it is bigger than me because it is about the community.”
There were adjustments within the squad too as Shabazz praised the work of Brazilian fitness coach Americo Falopa as well as a clutch of Guyanese signings. But he was particularly grateful to have signed local playmaker, Marvin Oliver, who—by virtue of six man of the match nominations—is the 2007 Pro League’s most valuable player thus far.
“He is the type of player who personifies magic,” said Shabazz. “He brings to the team the same thing that Russell Latapy and Dwight Yorke brought to Trinidad and Tobago ’s football, which is a player who belongs to the people. He is a leader and someone the people just love.
“Why he was not used in the (CONCACAF) Gold Cup team just baffles me… Somebody needs to get some glasses.”
Petrotrin tamed Oliver once before this season and Williams will attempt a repeat this evening.
“We concentrated on getting behind the ball and defending en bloc,” said Williams. “They have a lot of players who can score goals. But we have been doing well ourselves. We scored nine goals in our last two matches so we won’t be sitting back.
“We want the three points.”
Shabazz is anxious to hold on to his dream, though.
“We are keeping that dream in our hearts,” said the coach, “and, day by day, we are going to do the necessary things to realise this dream.”
Petrotrin and Caledonia ’s Pro League “big brothers” have been warned.
