Soca Warriors go after more bonuses in Digicel Cup.
By: Shaun Fuentes (TTFF).
Trinidad and Tobago’s senior footballers putting on the national shirt in the current Digicel Caribbean Cup received their bonus payments on Friday from the T&T Football Federation and will now step on to the pitch going for more glory when they face off with Cuba in the second of the two semi finals at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Saturday.
In a meeting of the tournament’s Local Organizing Committee, it was agreed that T&T’s match will be played from 7pm while the other contest between Haiti and Guadeloupe will kick off at 5pm at the same venue.
On the eve of the encounter, following a full work out at the Ato Boldon Stadium training pitch, skipper Densill Theobald and his teammates were paid out their match fees and bonuses by the TTFF for matches played in the Digicel Cup so far. These appearance and match fees amounted to TT$321,300 while the technical staff including the head coach received in total TT$129, 937. These payments were made prior to any winnings collected from the Digicel for the tournament so far.
Away from that, head coach Wim Rijsbergen said his players remained focused on the task at hand as they eye the first prize of USD120,000 of which they will also receive bonus payments.
“We will try to go to the win so in that way we have we have to approach the match with a winning spirit,” Rijsbergen told TTFF Media after the training session at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Friday morning. “Hopefully with that in mind we can get the job done and move on to the finals. We have sent our coaches to get the information on Cuba from their last game and that’s the information the players will get,” he added when asked about his knowledge on Cuba.
The Dutchman complimented his players for being a bunch willing to learn at every turn and gave his thoughts on what could be the appropriate approach towards defeating the Cubans and whoever T&T possibly faces in the final next Tuesday.
“In every game and you should start from the back with a solid defense we haven’t been as solid as we should be in the recent games. But if we have a good organized team.. we have proven already that we will have chances every game to score goal… so we should be solid at the back and then use our creativity to score some goals and that could get the job done,” Rijsbergen added.
The likes of Kerwyn Jemmott and Gary Glasgow, two of the veterans in the team so to say, have performed to the call but Rijsbergen said he wasn’t judging any player based on their past.
“I told people before I am not going with history. I observe what is happening in training and in games and we take it from there. Some guys have a bad history and some have a good one. We are facing them on the training pitch and how we see them against the opponent and we do our work based on that. It will be the same in the future… I like history but it’s also old history.”
With that in mind, T&T will hope to wipe off their recent record against the Cubans. In a Caribbean zone Gold Cup qualifier back in March 2003, Cuba ousted T&T 3-1 at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium before T&T bounced back with a 2-1 win in a friendly in November that year. The last meeting between these two however saw Cuba coming away 2-1 winners in the Digicel Cup Finals in Barbados in February 2005. Cornell Glen was T&T’s lone scorer and three members of the current T&T squad, Leslie Fitzpatrick, Scott Sealy and Densill Theobald were on the pitch that day.
“We know Cuba’s style of play. They try to be very correct and they can punish you when you slip up so with that in mind we know we have to make very little mistakes,” Theobald said. “It’s good to be a team where the confidence is growing. We will try to make it stay that way with a good performance and hopefully a good victory,” he added,
Cuba meantime, coming with what head coach Raul Gonzalez Triana described as their best team, all locally-based players, will be cautious but not fearful of T&T.
“We have nothing to fear and it’s the same with any team. We prepare and we play our game and we let the next team play. We are not worried about our game. We just wait to see what is the strategy of the next team,” Triana said via a translator looking ahead to Saturday’s game. “We are all based locally and this is our best team. We have sent our people abroad, both players and coaches to train and then we return home and prepare our team. We have a desire to do well and we want to compete for the South Africa World Cup. Of course we are happy to make the Gold Cup and we want to win this tournament. We will play to win,” he added. Cuba had previously taken a squad for training in Germany in July/August 2006. Their captain Jenier Molina was also optimistic saying “We prepare for Trinidad and we will see how they play their game. We are excited and we think our chances are as good as any team.”
In the earlier game, Haiti tackles Guadeloupe from 5pm. For the two semi-final outings, all yellow cards have been waived which sees T&T’s Dwayne Jack, Cuba’s Jaine Colome and Haiti’s Brunel Fucien all going in with a clean slate.
And the match officials will be Roberto Moreno (Panama) as referee and Egbert Paesch (Aruba) and Joseph Taylor (T&T) being the assistants for the Haiti vs Guadeloupe clash while for T&T versus Cuba, Jamaican Courtney Campbell carrying the whistle and his countrymen Anthony Garwood and Ricardo Morgan running the flags.
