I have never seen an upcoming craibbean tourney where so many teams genuinely believe they can beat T&T and win the thing outright.
We have just qualified and participated at the highest level of worl football, something none of these other 7 teams have come close to doing in the modern era (post 1970's). That is a helluva stripe to have, and just based on this we would command great respect from some of these other supposedly "inferior" teams. But I dont think we are favourites to win, simply because of the present circumstances of the team composition.
Lets just forget the current team selection problems for a moment, some stuff to ponder:
1) If Mexico was to host the UNCAF or whatever they call it in Central America, and field a 2nd grade team, playing at home, would they still be considered favourites? I think they would. And that is the difference between us and them.
2) Rememebr in the 2002 WC drive, our first game was vs jamaica in Kingston. We had assembled our best team on paper, perhaps in history up to that point...Dwight just netted a hattrick vs Arsenal a few days before, but Ja - fielding a team that included perhaps 2 first choice players at max - beat us. Can we do the same to them if the roles were reversed? Thats the difference between T&T and Ja.
3) This bunch of players will have been training together for about 6 weeks at the start of the tourney on Friday...by T&T standards, that is a lifetime. It is one of our better prepared national teams in recent memory. If we flob big time, what conclusions can we draw from that? 1) Our local based players just cant cut it, or 2) The 6 week camp did not fulfil its purpose, and the services of the technical staff will be called into question.
Everyone thinking of the negatives, the stuff from jabloteh, etc etc, but anyone stop to wonder if we actually do well in this competition? What will that mean?
For one, it will be very disheartening for the rest of the Caribbean..That they cannot compete with a supposed 3rd string T&T team.
The mental boost it will give the technical staff and all players involved (foreign and local) will be immeasureable.
I see this as an excellent opportunity to see where our local guys stand against moderate opposition. We have been hearing for the past couple years that our locals dont cut it, our PFL is not good enough. Well, its an excellent time now to pass judgement on that now. No excuses, the team has been in some very good preperation.
Personally, I would love us to win the competition...
But logically thinking and going on history, i dont know if it will happen.... Getting a Gold Cup place is an absolute must. It isnt that hard, 4 teams qualify, we just have to get out the group stage.
Cuba, Martinique and Haiti are top teams. Guadelupe and Bim in our group I know will be competitive. We kinda lucky ja got knocked out in retrospect.
I know to myself that our first team will make mincemeat of all these other teams, maybe the top 3 I called before will be competitive....So lets be secure in that and hope for the best over the next 2 weeks.
Lets see what our locals and the PFL can do....
If we are to be considered a top CONCACAF team like Mex and the US, we have to start proving that we have more that 16-18 players from T&T who can play football.
