Trinidad are worthy warriors
By Roy Collins at the UPC Arena, Austria
(Filed: 28/05/2006)
Telegraph.co.uk
Wales (1) 2 Trindiad and Tobago (1) 1
Trinidad and Tobago are considered the least troublesome opponents that England will face in the group stages of the World Cup, which is presumably why Sven-Goran Eriksson, a man who will normally accept an invitation to an international game as swiftly as a call to take tea with Roman Abramovich, saw no reason to swap his Regents Park home for the tiny UPC Arena here in Graz.
But as limited as Trinidad might be with a team drawn mostly from the Championship and even lower down English football's food chain, they will have impressed on the spy sent on Sven's behalf that they are a side deserving anyone's respect, albeit that they suffered a cruel, late defeat in Austria, surrendering a sucker goal to Welsh striker Robert Earnshaw. Despite that, as you would expect of a outfit managed by the respected Dutch coach Leo Beenhakker, Trinidad played neat, controlled football and displayed a spirit that makes them much more than the sum of their parts.
None was more impressive than Port Vale's Christopher Birchall, the only white man in the side, whose industry and energetic running deserved the goal that ought to have crowned a fine second-half run. And Stern John of Coventry, who scored the opening goal, showed that he will need no second invitation if he gets a clear sight of Paul Robinson's goal in Germany.
This being football rather than cricket, the sport for which Trinidad is more famous, there was no gentle calypso music to herald the team's entrance but the harsh, pounding rhythm of Soca, the leitmotif of the Soca Warriors, with its uncompromising lyric that "this is not football, this is war". There was also the hint of a steel drum in a corner of the more than half-empty 15,000-seat stadium. But given the circumstances and the fact that the match was played in the lazy, early evening sunlight, the Trinidad players were forced to march to their own drumbeat against a Wales side itching to join two of their more illustrious missing team-mates on their summer holidays.
Craig Bellamy was allowed to leave the squad to prepare for his wedding in a couple of weeks' time, preceded by a stag night that, on his previous form, might end up decorating the front page of the News Of The World, while Ryan Giggs did what he usually does when a friendly match presents its ugly head, went to ground clutching one of his hamstrings.
Against rivals who might soon be washing up on one of their own Tobago beaches, Trinidad could have been excused for showing less urgency than in a pick-up game on the Port of Spain Savannah, the giant parkland where so many of their sporting heroes have taken their first strides. But to their credit, they knuckled down to what, for them, is serious World Cup preparation with some crisp passing movements.
Birchall, playing like a man at the start of the season rather than the fag end of it, was at the heart of most of their moves and it was his free-kick from wide on the left that allowed John to slot his side into a 20th minute lead.
Within seconds, however, Trinidad lost centre-half Marvin Andrews to injury and, while their defence was still trying to readjust, Earnshaw equalised for Wales and celebrated with enough handsprings to suggest that he had just scored in a World Cup final. Like Giggs, though demonstrating it in a completely opposite way, he does not do friendlies.
Trinidad also had to make the most of every minute they were on the pitch since the referee, who failed to add on stoppage time at the end of either half, had been told that the game had to finish on the dot of 8pm local time since Dutch TV, who were transmitting it, had to clear the decks for the Holland game.
Showing himself to have more in common with Eriksson than we thought, Wales manager John Toshack made four changes at half-time, including taking off debutant goalkeeper Jason Brown from Gillingham and handing out another new cap to Leyton Orient's Glyn Garner.
Trinidad maintained their tempo, and even raised it a little, while making their own whirl of second-half substitutions and really ought to have found a winner - John, Birchall and substitute Russell Latapy all driving shots wide. But the final minutes notwithstanding, the Warriors will be satisfied with their evening's work.
