This whole coaching thing is a tricky situation.
My personal opinion is that YES, maturana has shown some weaknesses in the previous games, but then I am an armchair coach and was one of the people who supported BSC in the last campaign.
The main reason I supported BSC last time was that he was the best available coach we had, everyone was calling for his head, but nobody was making logical suggestions - BSC had the best resume in T&T and the most accomplishments, not to mention T&T's longest unbeaten streak sometime in 2000 I think at about 13 games, plus playing some of the most attractive and attacking football (albeit nieve in defense), manifested in the Gold Cup 2000. But then JW came and shocked everyone with the appointment of a world renowned coach. It proved to be a brilliant masterstroke on his part, as Beenie is the one exception to the rule that has been true for all T&T coaches - hire and fire in rapid succession with no meaningful goals achieved.
Same thing now.
JW, whether we like it or not, IS T&T football. He pays for everything.
And he has publiclly come out and supported Maturana recently, so I am assuming that he will not be axing him soon. Remember JW comments last time on firing BSC - in his (JW) opinion, the T&T team was not being coached properly - comments from a footbal administrator mind you.
So unless JW has any intention to swap Maturana for a high name profile coach, we are stuch with Pancho, at least for the semi final round.
If we barely scrape through,like we did against Bermuda, I think he might be inclined to re-think the situation.
But I also believe it is not all doom and gloom so much as some of us believe.
I genuinely believe we are good enough to qualify for the final round. the major problem in my mind is not the coach, its player selection, and we all know the situation on that. if we get our best available players, I think we can give the US a run, even with maturana.
With the current players under Maturana, we will need much more luck in terms of results favoring us and a couple players to hit the form of their life - people like Makan Hislop, Jason Scotland et al. On current form, we will struggle to beat Cuba at home. I remember in the Digicel Cup, Cuba impressed me more than any other team (including T&T), the tempo and chemistry of their team was a sight to behold - they were done in by some bad luck vs T&T in the semi-final, if they hadnt lost that player to a red card, the result might have been very different, so people, do not take too much heart in the 3-0 beating we put on them, it is a bit deceiving and they are MUCH better than that scoreline suggests.
But back to the coach - he must be given some credit.
In modern football, no matter who it is (unless it Fiji or Seychelles or something), its hard to break down a team at home who is playing to defend a 2 goal lead, knowing the prize at stake.
Trust me, if we had a playoff with Bermuda for a direct WC spot, like we did with Bahrain, there would not have been that much between the 2 teams over the 2 legs. Motivitaion is a helluva thing, and to an extent, it makes up for technical deficiencies, especially playing against a team not the best technically in the world (T&T).
But Pancho madse some interesting moves, bringing in 2 new forwards who bermuda had no data on, and introducing Stern late after they tired. He has some guts and indeed some tactical acumen.
The biggest tragedy of this entire Bermuda situation is the player selection.
TT& has also learnt a very valuable lesson... Fresh off after the glory of making and playing in a World Cup, I think the country as a whole thought they should not even have to play with bermuda. We were all thinking of it a a foregone conclusion, and that was the same vibes I got from the players in Macoya. The energy level was way too low, and they tried too hard to just win by overclassing them with finesse and history. But running power, energy and inspiration on the part of the Bermudans edged us out (not to mention some woeful finishing too), so only then did we realise we were in a game and actually had to turn up and run and sweat with these lowly Bermudans. Let us just be thankful that we have not followed so many CONCACAF teams who have made their first WC and never returned. I am sure hsitory is also littered with teams like France who won World Cups and failed in the first round next time.
If you check CONCACAF history since 1989, lots of supposed top teams have struggled immensely in the early rounds, and come good and peak when it matters, you guys rememebr Barbados beating Costa Rica in Barbados, then CR coming back to qualify?
Football is not 1+1 = 2 as Beenie used to say, so the fact that we struggled to beat Bermuda does not mean we are automatic crap and will lose heavily in the next round - how come only 1 week earlier we were 1 minute away from beating Jamaica who won their tie 13-0 or something like that? Didnt we lose to this same Ja team 2-4 in POS in July 2000, only to go on and romp past our semi final group one week after that ja beating??