T&T start fresh World Cup campaign.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).
Gwada Boys challenge Warriors.
The Trinidad and Tobago national football team kick off their 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign in earnest today with a 4 p.m. clash against French island, Guadeloupe, at the Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain.
The "Soca Warriors" won global acclaim after successfully qualifying for the 2006 showcase tournament in Germany, but there has been little continuity since while a bonus dispute between the World Cup players and the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (T&TFF) is before a London sport tribunal at present.
Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the Christian calendar, is a time for repentance and, on the field of play, the national football team will make the first step today towards reclaiming the hearts of the local public.
Twenty-three-year-old Sunderland striker Kenwyne Jones scored on his last business trip to Port of Spain-a 2-1 win over Panama on October 11, 2006-and his recent performances in the England Premier League should intrigue football enthusiasts.
Southampton forward Stern John, who is making his 101st international appearance, might further rewrite local football history with a goal today. John, 31, is the country's all-time leading scorer and the joint eighth most successful international poacher ever with 67 items thus far.
Should John score today, he will join German legend and former World Cup winner Gerd Muller, who tallied his 68 goals from just 62 matches.
Jones and John played together yesterday in what appeared to be a mock-up of today's starting team.
And T&T Pro League fans might see the launch of a new talent too as 18-year-old CL Financial San Juan Jabloteh midfielder Khaleem Hyland was used as a holding midfielder on the same outfit, while 22-year-old Defence Force left back Aklie Edwards also got a starting job.
Arguably, the most important figure within the national set-up at present is head coach Francisco Maturana, who officially took up duties on February 1. The Colombian twice took his native country to the World Cup finals, in 1990 and 1994, and got fellow South Americans, Ecuador, to the 1998 competition.
Maturana, who spoke through stand-in translator and assistant coach Anton Corneal, told the Express he was satisfied with his new charges thus far.
"I am very satisfied with the professional attitude that the players have shown," he said. "We have players who have the technique and potential to play like Brazil but it is hard to see a change (in the country's style of play) in just three days of practice."
Maturana vowed to make few tactical changes to the present squad--he explained it was not worth the risk of confusing his players--while 25-year-old World Cup midfielder Densill Theobald retains the captain's armband for now.
Theobald, who plays in Hungary for Ujpest FC, is a future candidate for the team captaincy but Maturana stressed the eventual choice would "show himself" by an ability to bring the players together and motivate the squad.
Today's friendly, according to Maturana, will afford him the first glimpse of his challenge as he looks towards the "big picture". The Warriors arrive in Trinidad today following a three-day camp in Tobago, which gave the players and the new technical staff a chance to learn more about each other.
There is much catching up to be done amongst the players too.
Only John, Jones, Theobald and winger Collin Samuel remain from the Warriors who saw action in Germany, while goalkeeper Clayton Ince and striker Jason Scotland were also members of that historic squad.
Most of the other 12 players in today's squad have seen little of these players in the flesh.
Utility player Silvio Spann, who should start in right midfield, was involved in the 2006 World Cup team but missed out through injury, while bmobile Joe Public attacking midfielder Kerry Baptiste and Jabloteh full back Nigel Daniel also played with full-strength national teams.
The rest of the team cut their teeth during the impasse that saw 16 World Cup players banned from representing their country.
Jones made the most of his exile with a string of impressive performances at Sunderland, which led to his selection as T&TFF Player of the Year, although he did not wear "red, white and black" for 2007.
Jones, a mobile battering ram who stands at six foot two, was almost denied his move to the Premiership club when T&TFF president Oliver Camps dithered over essential paperwork for the young man's work permit. It took a written plea from Football Players Association of Trinidad and Tobago (FPATT) president and his World Cup teammate, Shaka Hislop, to appease the British Home Office and Jones hinted, at the time, that his transfer was almost sabotaged as a result of the legal battle between players and administrators.
It is another of the complex relationships within the football fraternity that Maturana, unlike his Dutch counterpart and 2006 boss Leo Beenhakker, will have to help the Warriors through. A qualified dentist, the Colombian professor is no stranger to pulling teeth.
Hopefully, it will be all smiles today for Trinidad and Tobago football fans against a Guadeloupian outfit that ended as semi-finalists at the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup.
T&T (Possible starters): - Clayton Ince; Nigel Daniel, Osei Telesford, Seon Power, Aklie Edwards; Silvio Spann, Khaleem Hyland, Densill Theobald, Collin Samuel; Kenwyne Jones, Stern John.
(Subs): - Marvin Phillip, Keston Williams, Hayden Tinto, Trent Noel, Marvin Oliver, Jason Marcano, Kerry Baptiste, Keon Daniel, Jason Scotland.
