ttproleague.com
By Joel Villafana, 21st July, 2006
Fifa Coaching instructor Alvin Corneal and his son, National Assistant Football Coach Anton Corneal both made strong calls for the T&T Pro League to play its role in this country’s bid for qualification to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The two Corneals’ were speaking at the T&T Pro League’s World Cup Symposium at the Crowne Plaza hotel entitled ‘World Cup 2006—Review and Recommendations’.
Alvin Corneal in his address said the time for celebrating the ‘Soca Warriors’ debut performance at the world cup is over and we must now focus on what lies ahead.
The former national head coach says, "We need to take ourselves away from the Germany experience and look back at all the things we have been doing wrong in the past and correct it as we move forward."
"Yes there were positives coming out of the national team’s performance in Germany, but we still have a long way to go before we can feel any sense of accomplishment,"—he made it clear, "2006 was definitely an achievement for the country, but if we produce a similar performance in 2010 it will be considered a total failure."
Looking ahead at the challenges that lie before us, the former national striker advised that all locally based professional players plying their trade in the T&T Pro League must take a hint from the professional attitude displayed by the ‘Soca Warriors’ while they were in Germany.
‘If our locally based players take a hint from their very own peers who went to Germany, it will be a step in the right direction—as the attitude displayed in Germany by our players were uncharacteristic of Trinidad and Tobago players—there was no laid back mentality, everyday whether it was on the field of play—or on the training pitch—the guys always meant business."
He continued, "The T&T Pro League and by extension its clubs must insist that professional attitude emanates throughout the League, as it’s the only way we will start preparing our players for when they get to that level and are called on to perform for Trinidad and Tobago."
Mr. Corneal (senior) also warned, about not getting ahead of ourselves—"While we are all thinking about 2010, lets not forget there is 2007, 2008 and 2009—we have under 17 and under 20 World Cup’s to try and qualify for and we also have two Concacaf Gold Cups before 2010."
"We need to start qualifying for the Youth World Cup’s and become dominant in our own Concacaf region, its time we make a Gold Cup final, we must use these tournaments as stepping stones towards the ultimate goal of 2010," added Corneal.
Corneal who now serves on FIFA’s Technical Committee, concluded by emphasizing the importance of investing in our youth—he said, "We found millions in order to prepare our ‘Soca Warriors’ when they needed it—lets now find millions to develop our young players, it’s the only way we will be truly ready to mount a serious challenge in 2010."
Alvin Corneal’s son Anton Corneal addressed the issue of the fitness levels of our players—and called on the local professional clubs to play its part in getting their players up to the required fitness levels—in order for the transition at international level to be much smoother.
Young Corneal had the privilege of being one of coach Leo Beenhakker’s assistant coaches at the World Cup in Germany—and the former national player recalled the challenge of getting the Trinidad and Tobago world cup team up to the required fitness level.
"Most if not all of our players were not as fit as they should have been for varying reasons, they were below par of what was required at that level, so we had to put in extra work in order to get them where we wanted them and that was a setback leading up to our first game against Sweden."
He added, "Some players don’t understand they can’t get fit by playing games, but they need to put in the work before hand—and Corneal said the local game must step up in pace and intensity to get our players closer to what is expected of them at the highest level."
He advised local clubs to send out their coaches to foreign clubs and let them see for themselves first hand the intensity of practice sessions of some club teams abroad.
Anton Corneal admitted, "As a team, the ‘Soca Warriors’ went into the world cup with defence being the number one priority, and that’s the only reason why we did not get four and five goals," he said, "Our only real attacking plan was Cornell Glenn when he came on, he provided that burst of speed that could cause concern for the opposition."
He said from a coaching perspective, based on what was the objective going in—the technical staff was satisfied the team executed the plans accordingly.
He however, said, "Going forward the T&T Pro League has a big part to play if we are to continue qualifying for world cups, and its time we put the pettiness behind us and unite from coaches to administrators."
