saw this in today's paper and found it particularly funny.
http://www.newsday.co.tt/commentary/0,106800.htmlHunting for seatsPETER O'CONNOR Sunday, September 6 2009Today, I think we are celebrating. I am going really bold, as I write this on Thursday, and claim victory over Honduras in the match we played there last night. I feel confident enough in the team to say this, and I will take the consequences should my confidence be in vain.
The “consequences”? Well, we all know that we have people who will relish a disappointment provided it gives them the opportunity to crow over you: “Dah side eh good! It serve allyou right because…!” You know the ones I mean, always there to pull down, never to experience pride. I remember one such, back in 2005. After we beat Guatemala here 3-2, to get back on track for Germany, we went to Costa Rica. We lost 0-2 over there, and after we returned, I was on the savannah, when I was accosted: “Ocano, you feel ‘that side’ could still go Germany?” Of course, I replied, to which he responded with an expletive. Two months later, on the flight back from Bahrain, I suddenly smiled to myself. My mind ran on that individual, and I wondered what he was doing? Probably dancing in St James, I thought, proclaiming his support for the Warriors!
So, why am I out on a limb this week, saying that as you read this, we will have beaten Honduras last night? Because we can! Simple as that! And if we know we can, I believe we will.
We have not met Honduras often in World Cup qualifying, but when we have played them over there, we have done well. In 1988, in the first round of qualifying for Italy, the Strike Squad met Honduras at the Oval and battled to a goalless draw. The return match in Honduras saw us draw 1-1 on Hudson Charles late goal, and we qualified for that famous final round on the away goals rule. We did not meet Honduras again until 2001, in the qualifications for Japan Korea. We lost at home, but went to Honduras, and with nothing to play for, beat them 1-0 there, dumping them out of the World Cup Finals. So, I say we can go there and beat them again. I know they have beaten both Costa Rica and Mexico at home already this year, but I still say we can beat them, and history is on our side.
So, are you celebrating this morning, as the Warriors are flying back home to take on the United States at Hasely Crawford on Wednesday? But more to the point—was your faith powerful enough to have sent you to buy your match tickets before now? Or are you only now hunting for tickets?
And this brings us back to the still incomplete works at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, where after spending over 20 million dollars on the VIP Room and special new seats—180 of them, the playing field has still not been touched, and the car park area is mass of crumbling asphalt and deep potholes. This just tells us where the concerns really lie. Special seats for carefully chosen guests, but nothing to maintain the playing surface for our footballers.
Of course, Mr Hunt’s “huffing” of all those prime seats cut deeply into potential revenue for the Federation, and also deprives major sponsors of the seats they were accustomed to using. I would like to feel that Mr Hunt’s chosen friends, certain Ministers and certain Parliamenta-rians had some sort of claim to these special and upgraded seats because they were such patriotic leaders. But this hope was shattered when I saw the Newsday photo last Tuesday showing all the empty seats at the VIP Stand for the Independence Parade. Where were all the government ministers and their wives, please? Surely 180 of Mr Hunt’s chosen people should have turned up to attend the Independence Day parade? Or can it be that Mr Hunt (I did not see him in the Independence Day Stand ) is really seeing football as being more important than …? Let us not pursue that.
The trouble is that I truly believe that a victory last night will see Gary Hunt’s Gallery chock full of his selected friends, drinking and eating more than supporting the team. However, if the result is against us, I expect Gary’s Gallery to look like the viewing stand on Independence Day. What do you think?
And a word of advice to Gary: Try and get your list of friends to Mr Warner today—Jack will be at work. We don’t want to know that Jack is hunting for tickets at the last minute to accommodate those whom you have excluded.
