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LESS than 24 hours after their stunning debut against Sweden at the 2006 World Cup Finals on Saturday, Trinidad and Tobago's Soca Warriors were back in training yesterday morning here in Rotenburg, Germany.
And as the Warriors prepare for what could be their greatest World Cup challenge against England, T&T captain Dwight Yorke is looking forward to a battle against England skipper and his former Manchester United teammate, David Beckham.
With one point in the bag from their opening Group B match, Yorke is now eagerly anticipating tackling the might of England, including Beckham, come Thursday at the Franken-Stadion in Nuremberg.
"It's really exciting I'm looking forward to playing against him," he said yesterday.
Yorke and Beckham have been texting each other as they count down the days to the first-ever meeting between Trinidad and Tobago and the 1966 World Cup winners.
As expected, there was a lot of chatter and laughter amongst Yorke and his men as they practised from 10.30 a.m. (4.30 a.m. T&T time) yesterday in front of more than 300 fans from T&T, members of two tour groups travelling by bus in support of the national team at football's World Championships.
Head coach Leo Beenhakker maintained a tight ship, though, calling the players back to the middle after an unscheduled water break, the starting XI on the centre line doing sit-ups and push-ups and the rest of the squad practising crosses, the Dutchman urging greater effort from the reserves, telling assistant coach Wim Rijsbergen that some of them were "still sleeping".
The Warriors had left the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund in their bright-red FIFA-assigned team bus at around 9 p.m. (3 p.m. T&T time) on Saturday after their 0-0 draw with Sweden and arrived back at the Landaus Wachtelhof Hotel in Rotenburg near midnight.
"It was very noisy for about two hours," said Yorke of the journey from Dortmund, the T&T Soca Warriors shocking their Swedish opponents with their tenacity and holding off everything they threw at them after being reduced to ten men early in the second half when left back Avery John was sent off.
"It does feel better today," stated the captain of the result, which sent hordes of red-clad supporters from the stadium into the Fan Mile in downtown Dortmund, where they partied into the next morning.
Yorke was speaking to the Express as yesterday's practice session wrapped up just before noon, when he and all the other players went over to the western side of the Sportenlagen facility in their adopted home of Rotenburg, where they posed for photographs and signed autographs for the T&T tour groups, among them being Tobagonians Darren Orr and Dwight Campbell, who said he used to play football alongside Yorke as youths at the St Clair Coaching School, run by the T&T captain's mentor, Bertille St Clair.
Of the draw in Dortmund, Yorke said it was a "credit to the players people didn't expect us to do well.
"We were able to keep our composure and it shows the maturity of the team," pointing out that in years gone by, "we might have folded and gone under 4-0 or something.
"I think they've come a long way in the year's time since I've been here," said Yorke, named Man-of-the Match for his tremendous performance against Sweden.
He also paid tribute to Beenhakker and the coaching staff, who have been a "massive influence".
"The way we played was a credit to the staff we all put in a lot of hard work,"said the proud T&T skipper.
After yesterday's session, the team had 24 hours' free time and some of them were seen walking around Rotenburg in the afternoon, when a cultural extravaganza was staged in the town centre.
Kingman
