Our path to World Cup South Africa.
By: Alvin Corneal (Guardian).[/size]
The taste of World Cup Germany 2006 is still very much on our lips and this magnificent experience has brought to the people of this country, a spirit of patriotism, a desire to reach further, and most importantly, an image which our young people can catapult into a driving gear for a better sporting life.
It’s a pity that our neglect of history has never demonstrated a definitive path from the early days when outstanding athletes like Ahamad Charles, Thor Scholset, Babsie Daniel, and Alvin Rodrigues, none of whom I have been privileged to see on the football fields, were unassumingly setting a strong base upon which this little nation could build.
This highly qualitative array of super talented players continued consistently throughout the fifties to the end of the century and wrestled through some roller coaster rides to a senior world Cup Finals in Germany.
The success of that journey has now left today’s team of players towards another effort to reach a repeat of 2006.
There are still those who believe that the dice rolled heavily in our favour and we capitalised upon the opportunity which culminated into an arena which included Sweden, Paraguay, and our previous superiors, England.
In the midst of that euphoria, few would have recognised the meaningful investment into youth programming, where our Under-20 of 2005 and our U-17 of 2008 had made enormous strides towards today’s challenge of World Cup football.
The picture is now clearer, as names like Aklie Edwards, Makan Hislop, Ataullah Guerra, Keon Daniel, Kareem Smith, Khaleem Hyland, Jamal Gay and Marvin Phillip, have joined with a young, but more experienced group of Darryl Roberts, Osei Telesford, Stephan David, Ancil Farrier, Kern Cupid and Kevaughn Connell.
Put this lot together with the vast and still capable Clayton Ince, Dennis Lawrence, Stern John, Carlos Edwards, Marquee player Kenwyne Jones (still only 23 years old) and keep an eye on the bubble players Jason Scotland, Randi Patterson, Lester Peltier, Kerry Baptiste, and Hayden Tinto.
Yes, the names with which we are playing could produce some excellent results if they are prepared to stay the course. And exactly what do they have to do in order to achieve their goals?
The passion is already there within the fans and seemingly among the players as well, so we can rest assured that one stage of the task is in focus.
The other areas of our game were actually exposed when we played against England, where the defensive and over cautious approach to the game, sometimes left us with a role as spectators.
There was an absolute need for assertiveness, a businesslike and aggressive attitude, plus the need to show that we are on the field to win.
The Jamaica match brought out two interesting features in our game. The first is that our young players improved their intensity and became ball winners, as opposed to ball watchers which we displayed against England.
The other feature was courage! Yes ! Courage !
What a pleasant sight is was to see the fighting spirit of youngsters like Hyland, Whitley, Hislop, Edwards, Daniel and Telesford. This brought to my mind a new trend in our football, and one can thank the likes of Lawrence, Edwards and Ince for their injection into the hearts of the youngsters.
Admittedly, this determined aggression may have been incited by the tough tackling of the “Reggae Boyz”, and could even be mistaken for retaliation. But the lesson must have been learned from the exercise.
So, with just three days to the opening day of our World Cup encounter, I reckon that this team is ready for Bermuda. This must not be seen as a fait accomplit (a done deal), as we have had a serious setback against this same country many moons ago, when we were alleged to be a much better team than they are, yet still lost the game. It deprived us of a silver medal in the Pan Am Games of 1967 in Winnipeg Canada.
This is not only about winning the matches on the next two Sundays, but firmly sending a message to the football world that we are ready to compete against the likes of North and Central America.
I would expect that Francisco Maturana and his staff will be making a demand from their players from the very first touch and let the opponents know that this will be a tough, intense, aggressive and courageous exercise for which the “Soca Warriors” are ready.
We must also show up with our thousands of supporters to turn the Marvin Lee Stadium (Macoya) into a den where visiting teams come to be devoured by a nation committed to making numbers count and victory our main goal.
And speaking about the stadium, I am really bothered by the fact that the Hasely Crawford Stadium is not used for this encounter. I do not know who is responsible, but they are doing an injustice to the game while players and supporters are living the passion of improved football.
Politics in not my game, but getting it into the mix and putting the players at a disadvantage is tantamount to being disloyal to our country.
I have nothing personally against the Marvin Lee Stadium, but with 15,000 more voices and the atmosphere which could affect the focus of the Bermudans, whose population will not even fill our stadium, that is an environment which will benefit our team.
For the sake of this country, I humbly ask the stakeholders to be more responsible and let the priority for playing our World Cup fixtures reflect our commitment to a matured society.
