The general feeling on the board is that the TTFF diss the WC players, and we going into battle in what is a true T&T "B" team.
Everyone kinda supports the new team and hopes for the best, but deep down, I dont think we are expecting them to take the tournament by storm.
We have historically not done well here and always sent in our big guns.
But there is a lingering feeling that if the full WC team had gone, we coulda really challenge the status quo this time around.
But lets just suppose that this new look T&T team does well....what will follow?
Will we start thinking of discarding our Warriors for a brand new generation of T&T ballers?
How will we mix the old with the new?
Or will we simply do like in the past and forget nearly all the new players and go for the overseas players once they become available....?
We are grouped with the US, Guatemala and El Salvador.
US - We always look forward to these games, and hope we can beat the favoured yanks. But looking at their roster, they are comign with their strongest team. We will be very hard pressed to beat them.
El Sal and Guat - Historically, we have done about 50-50 against these teams. Just based on that, and a decent coach in WIM, I dont see us that much far away from beating at least one of these teams.
There are 3 groups, top 2 from each qualify, PLUS the two best 3rd placed teams.
In other words, the odds of making the second round is 8 in 12 or 66%.
These are not bad odds.
We might have a 99.9% local team, but we must rememebr that we are now a recently added WC pedigree team. A T&T second 11 should be capable of at least making the second round in a regional competition.
If we can do that, it shows we have some decent depth here in T&T.
If we cant, it shows that the T&T over the last 2 years really only had about 15 footballers.
As a matter of fact, we should theoretically be able to at least make it past the first round...
Its a good test for our pro-league as well. Our teams usually reach fairly far in the Champions Cup, so some of these players have shown they can perform.
The team is young, inexperienced and almost exclusively local (only 1 of the 23 plays outside). But if we were to pick a local team, I am sure that these are the players that we would choose (maybe we will miss Hardest and some might argue Marvin Oliver). But for the most part, it is our best local based team at the moment.
By force, this gives WIM a very interesting scenario.
in all likliehood, the dispute will be settled by the time the serious WC qualifiers begin next year.
Of the blacklisted players, we will forever hold them as our heroes and never forget them. But a lot of them are fairly advanced in age.
The blacklisted players include:
Clayton Ince, Stern John, Dennis Lawrence, Carlos Edwards, Jason Scotland, Marvin Andrews, Kelvin Jack, Chris Birchall, Kenwyne Jones, Brent Sancho, Cornell Glen, Aurtis Whitley and Cyd Gray.
How many pf them will be in their prime in 2 years time?
These friendlies and tournaments gives the coach a real nice opportunity to scout for another 8-10 players who could compliment the core of blacklisted players mentioned above.
If the team does well, or at a minimum we have a couple players really stand out, then we will have something to work with going into the future.
Realistically speaking, we will not have WON the Gold Cup, Mexico and USA have their strongest teams...So its pretty much a matter of how far we would have progressed...
Lets hope we can get something out of these circumstances and build for the next 3 years...
T&T Gold Cup Team:
GK: Marvin Phillip (North East Stars), Daurance Williams (San Juan Jabloteh), Jan Michael Williams (W Connection FC)
DF: Dwayne Jack (San Juan Jabloteh), Thomas Nickcolson (W Connection FC), Anthony Noreiga (Joe Public FC), Trent Noel (San Juan Jabloteh), Seon Power (Joe Public FC), Keyeno Thomas (Joe Public FC), Glenton Wolffe (North East Stars)
MD: Romauld Aguillera (United Petrotrin), Christon Baptiste (Defence Force), Kerry Baptiste (Joe Public FC), Keon Daniel (United Petrotrin), Andrei Pacheco (W Connection FC), Silvio Spann (W Connection FC), Densill Theobald (Caledonia AIA)
AT: Gary Glasgow (Joe Public FC), Kendall Jagdeosingh (North East Stars), Errol McFarlane (Superstar Rangers), Darryl Roberts (Sparta Rotterdam/NED), Andre Toussaint (W Connection FC)
Coach: Wilhelmus RIJSBERGEN
