Soca Warriors face daunting task at Bacolet
Published: 4 Jun 2009
When Dwight Yorke leads the Soca Warriors out on the field against Costa Rica on Saturday at the Dwight Yorke Stadium, Bacolet, Tobago from 6.05 pm, his team will be hoping for a historic win. In 12 previous World Cup qualifying matches between both countries, dating back to 1966, T&T has never managed a win. Of the 12 World Cup matches, T&T has hosted five and has failed to win any, with the visiting Costa Ricans emerging winners on three occasions.
In 2001 in the Concacaf final round, Costa Rica won 2-0 after eking out a 1-0 win in 1996 during the Concacaf Semifinal Round, and a similar 1-0 defeat in First Stage competition, in 1965. The two other matches at home for the Soca Warriors against Costa Ricans, have ended in drawn results, 1-1 in 1989 during the Italy World Cup campaign, and a 0-0 draw on March 30, 2005 en route to qualifying for the Fifa 2006 World Cup Finals in Germany. During the 2006 World Cup campaign, T&T also played Costa Rica away in San Jose and suffered a 2-0 defeat.
For the 0-0 draw at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo on March 30, the last match under coach Bertille St Clair, current Soca Warriors team members goalkeeper Clayton Ince, Silvio Spann, Carlos Edwards, Cornell Glen, Yorke, Kenwyne Jones and Latapy were all involved as players. The return-leg match in San Jose in September 2005, T&T under new coach, Dutchman Leo Beenhakker fell 2-0 with Marvin Andrews, Dennis Lawrence, Edwards, Christopher Birchall, Spann, Densill Theobald, Jason Scotland and Yorke involved. Fresh on the minds of some of the T&T players, in Hayden Tinto, Marvin Phillips, Densill Theobald, Kerry Baptiste and Jan-Michael Williams will be a 4-0 licking from the Costa Ricans in 2007 in San Jose.
However, records are made to broken no matter the sport and the T&T players will know that they have beaten the Costa Rica team in the past, and will need to do so when it matters most, this time around.
T&T has managed three victories over the Costa Ricans, two of which have come at the Concacaf Gold Gup. In 2000 under St Clair, T&T had a a 2-1 extra-time quarterfinal win after a 1-1 full-time score in San Diego while T&T also won 2-1 at Pasadena in 1991 while the lone T&T victory on home soil came in 1971, a 3-1 win Port-of-Spain.
Another worrying sign for T&T going into Saturday’s match is that leading goalscorer Stern John is out of the match due to a back injury and with only two goals from three matches played, pressure is surely on the other players to step up. Midfielder, Keon Daniel of Caledonia AIA of Morvant/Laventille is currently the leading scorer for the World Cup qualifiers with four goals.