Fri 14 Oct 2005
printer friendly email article
Scotland rooting for Trinidad as Latapy, Andrews and Jack set up play-off
STUART BATHGATE
POLAND, Japan and Croatia should all have Scottish-based players in their squads at next year's World Cup. So too, if they get through their play-off, might the Czech Republic. The largest Scots contingent, however, could just come from Trinidad & Tobago.
The Caribbean team must also win a play-off to claim their place in Germany, but if they maintain the form they showed by beating Mexico 2-1 on Wednesday night they should have an excellent chance against Bahrain. The Mexicans had already qualified behind the United States in the CONCACAF group, but it was still a considerable feat by the so-called Soca Warriors to claim the win they required.
Coached by the former Dutch national boss Leo Beenhakker, Trinidad & Tobago missed a penalty and then fell behind before hitting back to win in Port of Spain. Had Beenhakker's side drawn or lost, Guatemala would have secured the play-off spot thanks to their 3-1 win over Costa Rica, who had already ensured the third-place finish which takes them through to the finals.
Kelvin Jack of Dundee, Rangers' Marvin Andrews, and Russell Latapy of Falkirk were the three Scots-based players in the home team's starting line-up, while Jason Scotland and Collin Samuel of St Johnstone and Dundee United have also figured. The star of the show against the Mexicans, though, was Stern John, who missed the penalty, then scored both his team's goals.
The crowd in the Hasely Crawford Stadium, already dismayed by the spot-kick failure, had been stunned into virtual silence when an audacious chip by Jaime Lozano gave Mexico the lead seven minutes before the break. John equalised in the 42nd minute, however, to revive his team's hopes, and then blasted home what turned out to be the winner 15 minutes into the second half following inspired work by Latapy.
"The manner in which we fought during the whole game to turn around the result was amazing," said the 63-year-old Beenhakker.
"Time doesn't forgive and I'm more or less at the end of my sporting career. This could be a fantastic finale for me to take part in another World Cup."
Beenhakker replaced Bertille St Clair in April after the Caribbean islanders had failed to win any of their first three games in the six-team qualifying group. Helped by the return from international retirement of Latapy and of Dwight Yorke, the coach inspired a revival in which they won four of their last seven matches.
Bahrain booked their place against T&T with a scoreless draw at home to Uzbekistan in the second leg of the Asian play-off. Having drawn the Tashkent leg 1-1, the Bahrainis went through on the away-goals rule. Japan, Iran, South Korea and Saudi Arabia were the automatic qualifiers from the Asian zone.
