Inasmuch as I am new to the Trini football scene (and haven't posted in a looooong while) I want to raise serious questions.
The push is on now for player development in local football, spearheaded by Lincoln Phillips. THis is a great positive, starting with development of coaches in Trninidad through coaching license courses that Phillips is certified to teach (USSF 'E', 'D', 'C', and 'B'.)
However, the depth at the International level is woefully lacking at the moment. We have no players playing in the Premiership right now, and the style of possession football that Beenhakker has brought forward (and continued with Rijsbergen) is "don't lose" football, rather than attacking play. We have to face the reality that we do not have the number of experienced players to be able to comfortably command an attacking style of play.
Latapy showed this clearly when he came onto the field in the last WC. He created opportunities, but had little in the role of supporting cast (except maybe Carlos Edwards) to play to. He made life difficult for his opponents, but it wasn't a team attacking effort.
I agree with Beenhakker, though, in not playing him in the two previous games. Against Sweden, we were under constant bombardment, and without Shaka's consistency, we would have been licking our wounds all the way back to Port of Spain. Against England, we could not match their sustained pressure, even though Crouch's goal did come from a bit of "gamesmanship".
I now regret that Cornell Glenn's shot against Sweden that hit the post had gone in...
Poll