Cuban Coaches and the CFU

[truetrini]

Not only the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuban coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

[frico]

Not only team the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuba coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

A very good observation and TT could do well to try and work on that,maybe start with an under 20 coach from Cuba for us.

[Fyzoman]

Not only team the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuba coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

This is very interesting, what them fellahs know/learn in Cuba that allow them to field teams that gave such good performances?

More importantly how in the hell they get big men to buy into that whole ball possession, knock-knock-knock thing:)

[theworm2345]

Not only the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuban coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

Depends what you mean by best playing.  In terms of attractive-ness I agree with the Spanish teams, but Haiti didn't really play all that attractively, definitely less than Martinique.

[truetrini]

Not only the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuban coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

Depends what you mean by best playing.  In terms of attractive-ness I agree with the Spanish teams, but Haiti didn't really play all that attractively, definitely less than Martinique.

I think Haiti is a better team than Martinique.   Defensively they are sounder, and they do basic things very well.

[frico]

Not only team the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuba coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

This is very interesting, what them fellahs know/learn in Cuba that allow them to field teams that gave such good performances?

More importantly how in the hell they get big men to buy into that whole ball possession, knock-knock-knock thing:)

I also gave what you said some serious thought although I didn't say it I kept thinking ,how did Cuban coaches get them fellas to play such football.The thing is we are more open to outside influence while Cuba is closed off to outsiders.I think we could try a Cuban coach and we may not have to pay them like ah prince.

[Deeks]

Frico, Cuba does get outside influence. The US try as the may, are quite unsuccesful to stop it. Cuba is open to ideas from Mexico go down. They also open to ideas from the Euros. What can the US teach Cuba in sports. Boxing, baseball, etc? But congrats to then for doing such a fine job at this level, at least.

[Fyzoman]

Not only team the Cuban team have a good tournament, all the Cuba coaches did well also.


Cuba - W. Benitez
Haiti - I. Cantero
Dominican Republic - C. Hernández

The three best playing teams all had Cuban Coaches.

This is very interesting, what them fellahs know/learn in Cuba that allow them to field teams that gave such good performances?

More importantly how in the hell they get big men to buy into that whole ball possession, knock-knock-knock thing:)

I also gave what you said some serious thought although I didn't say it I kept thinking ,how did Cuban coaches get them fellas to play such football.The thing is we are more open to outside influence while Cuba is closed off to outsiders.I think we could try a Cuban coach and we may not have to pay them like ah prince.

Know what is the sad thing, while we sitting here having these discussions we poor national team just waiting to reconvene and be led by clueless individuals:(

Men would say it's knee-jerk response to give a Cuban a shot at a younger team, but boss I willing to try anything yes.

[theworm2345]

I think Haiti is a better team than Martinique.   Defensively they are sounder, and they do basic things very well.

If we're just talking overall quality I definitely Martinique has to be up there (remember they beat Cuba and weren't really troubled throughout).  They were also very defensively sound until they sat their defence and their keeper left.

[Gazza]

Cuba has the very best sports program in the caribbean. For a country under embargos and such from the usa< they remain at the very top. I can say that first hand having received my sports degree along with others trinbagonians in that country. If we can educate our coaches to the level of having their sport coaching degrees it will do well for us as a nation. But sadly we will depend on our very underqualified former players that cant even let us win the lowest of tournaments and then say ok we satisfied. n.b our foreign coaches are all well qualified eh. And i spoke with the cuban coaches and they cannot even sniff national teams unless they have been properly and expertly trained eh. Lets continue to settle for mediocrity.

[truehaitian]

Cuban take their sports very serious and invest not a lot of money but mostly times and energy in every aspect of their sports. Even though, Russia no longer supported them but it gave them a good foundation for 25 years that they continue to build on.. Cuba is the only team in the Caribbean that play with 100% local players in every tournament. No Caribbean county can make that claim. Most Cuban coaches got their sport training through Russia where sport is considered as a national duty or as a religion or a top priority. Most people couldn't understand for a long time why the best US amateurs  side couldn't beat a Cuban amateur side in sports like Baseball, Boxing and Volleyball even though these sports took birth in the US..I always understood why...

I  begun to respect the Cuban soccer Coaches when Armelio Garcia took over a Haitian team in Trinidad coming from the best of the worse teams(i.e best of the third place finishers with 1 point and -1 goal), to help Haiti to beat Bermuda 3-0, 2-0 in a CFU play-off...and Move on to take care of teams like Martinique, Barbados, Guadeloupe and to win the CFU cup in T&T and accomplished all that ..all in less than 2 weeks on the road in T&T...

[just cool]

Cuba has the very best sports program in the caribbean. For a country under embargos and such from the usa< they remain at the very top. I can say that first hand having received my sports degree along with others trinbagonians in that country. If we can educate our coaches to the level of having their sport coaching degrees it will do well for us as a nation. But sadly we will depend on our very underqualified former players that cant even let us win the lowest of tournaments and then say ok we satisfied. n.b our foreign coaches are all well qualified eh. And i spoke with the cuban coaches and they cannot even sniff national teams unless they have been properly and expertly trained eh. Lets continue to settle for mediocrity.

This here is our problem horse!  we not serious bout nothing in T&T, we just go through the motions, and our youth suffer for it.

i believe that T&T should have four government football schools, where kids come in the frey from standard one through form five just learning football and academics, with coaches from england, italy and holland.

we have the money to do that, we also have the money to implement a coaching training college where coaches earn degrees for coaching excellence over a four yr period, and this should be mandatory for coaching any team in T&T, whether primary school or the pro league.

[truetrini]

Cuba has the very best sports program in the caribbean. For a country under embargos and such from the usa< they remain at the very top. I can say that first hand having received my sports degree along with others trinbagonians in that country. If we can educate our coaches to the level of having their sport coaching degrees it will do well for us as a nation. But sadly we will depend on our very underqualified former players that cant even let us win the lowest of tournaments and then say ok we satisfied. n.b our foreign coaches are all well qualified eh. And i spoke with the cuban coaches and they cannot even sniff national teams unless they have been properly and expertly trained eh. Lets continue to settle for mediocrity.

This here is our problem horse!  we not serious bout nothing in T&T, we just go through the motions, and our youth suffer for it.

i believe that T&T should have four government football schools, where kids come in the frey from standard one through form five just learning football and academics, with coaches from england, italy and holland.

we have the money to do that, we also have the money to implement a coaching training college where coaches earn degrees for coaching excellence over a four yr period, and this should be mandatory for coaching any team in T&T, whether primary school or the pro league.

Is this a priority for the nation?

Hospitals in hell, schools in trouble, traffic problems, disregard for the laws...jes asking?

[asylumseeker]

Cuba has the very best sports program in the caribbean. For a country under embargos and such from the usa< they remain at the very top. I can say that first hand having received my sports degree along with others trinbagonians in that country. If we can educate our coaches to the level of having their sport coaching degrees it will do well for us as a nation. But sadly we will depend on our very underqualified former players that cant even let us win the lowest of tournaments and then say ok we satisfied. n.b our foreign coaches are all well qualified eh. And i spoke with the cuban coaches and they cannot even sniff national teams unless they have been properly and expertly trained eh. Lets continue to settle for mediocrity.

This here is our problem horse!  we not serious bout nothing in T&T, we just go through the motions, and our youth suffer for it.

i believe that T&T should have four government football schools, where kids come in the frey from standard one through form five just learning football and academics, with coaches from england, italy and holland.

we have the money to do that, we also have the money to implement a coaching training college where coaches earn degrees for coaching excellence over a four yr period, and this should be mandatory for coaching any team in T&T, whether primary school or the pro league.

Is this a priority for the nation?

Hospitals in hell, schools in trouble, traffic problems, disregard for the laws...jes asking?

Here's a cheaper alternative:

http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/coaches/video/videoid=1616543.html?autoplay=true

[asylumseeker]

... There's also an interesting article about youth development in today's New York Times online ... A German Resurgence, Feet First.

[asylumseeker]

Havana's announcement this week, that travel by Cuban citizens has been liberalized, will have implications for defections. While US policy won't change immediately, it will be interesting to see how the policy change influences player decisions.

(Mods, please stick a pin on a Gold Cup thread).

[truetrini]

Interestng to see how a lame duck Obama plays this out.

[asylumseeker]

Lame duck? How so?

[truetrini]

I don't think he will deal with issue until he is a lame duck.  To do so before will jeopardize dems chances

[Toussaint]

This is a very interesting observation, Truetrini. It's obvious that Cuba has some sort of coach school that prepares decent coaches. However, Cuban coaches tend to favor local players over foreign-based ones. For example, Haiti is going to face Chili on the 19th with a team that is even more "local" than the one you saw at the Caribbean cup. They do not like taking chances with players they do not know and they do not seem to be impressed with players from big foreign clubs. I believe that has to do with them growing up and learning their trade in a communist country where the focus is on the development of local resources as opposed to relying on foreign countries.

By the way, Armelio is sort of available and has been living in Miami since his Haiti adventure. He is returning to Haiti for the next season because he has just signed up with the Haitian club Victory but I am sure he would consider an offer from Trinidad. Armelio will replace Victory's current Ecuadorian coach. However, he will have a mammoth task to bring the moneyed but troubled club back to Haiti's top division.

One more thing about the apparent success of Cuban coaches in Haitian football is that these guys are pretty much at home in Haiti. Some Cubans assume they are of Haitian descent and that assumption is supported by the fact that these Cubans tend to speak fluent Haitian Creole, even those who have never been to Haiti (some Black ones are actually of Jamaican descent). There are large areas in Cuba where almost everybody can speak Creole. Armelio, for instance, is a creole-speaker. I guess being able to effectively communicate with your players from day one also helps.

To sum it up, would a good Cuban coach help Trinidad? I do not see why not. Just like Haiti, Trinidad has a plethora of local talents that Cuban coaches seemed to have been trained to mine and develop. It would certainly take them a couple more days to adapt, but they would eventually build a winning team out of the players they have available. Caution: THEY DO NOT LIKE WORKING WITH TOO MANY FOREIGN PLAYERS and I suspect many Trini fans have zero confidence in their local players.

[Deeks]

This is a very interesting observation, Truetrini. It's obvious that Cuba has some sort of coach school that prepares decent coaches. However, Cuban coaches tend to favor local players over foreign-based ones. For example, Haiti is going to face Chili on the 19th with a team that is even more "local" than the one you saw at the Caribbean cup. They do not like taking chances with players they do not know and they do not seem to be impressed with players from big foreign clubs. I believe that has to do with them growing up and learning their trade in a communist country where the focus is on the development of local resources as opposed to relying on foreign countries.

By the way, Armelio is sort of available and has been living in Miami since his Haiti adventure. He is returning to Haiti for the next season because he has just signed up with the Haitian club Victory but I am sure he would consider an offer from Trinidad. Armelio will replace Victory's current Ecuadorian coach. However, he will have a mammoth task to bring the moneyed but troubled club back to Haiti's top division.

One more thing about the apparent success of Cuban coaches in Haitian football is that these guys are pretty much at home in Haiti. Some Cubans assume they are of Haitian descent and that assumption is supported by the fact that these Cubans tend to speak fluent Haitian Creole, even those who have never been to Haiti (some Black ones are actually of Jamaican descent). There are large areas in Cuba where almost everybody can speak Creole. Armelio, for instance, is a creole-speaker. I guess being able to effectively communicate with your players from day one also helps.

To sum it up, would a good Cuban coach help Trinidad? I do not see why not. Just like Haiti, Trinidad has a plethora of local talents that Cuban coaches seemed to have been trained to mine and develop. It would certainly take them a couple more days to adapt, but they would eventually build a winning team out of the players they have available. Caution: THEY DO NOT LIKE WORKING WITH TOO MANY FOREIGN PLAYERS and I suspect many Trini fans have zero confidence in their local players.

The problem stem back to the last administration which screwed up everything. Jack would have the squad train a few weeks before games. No proper training, hence shitty results. In the 60s, 70s and 80s, the nucleus of the national team used to be local. For WC and some big games they would bring the NASL players. They were few. Archie, Deleon, Figaro, Tony Douglas, Barclay. But most of the players were homegrown. But in the Dwight Yorke era, when guys started to get contracts in England, the nucleus shifted to the foreign based (both local and foreign born). The way Jack handled this caused all the disfunction. And the English teams not letting these player go for international duty did not help either. I am of the opinon that we can groom our local to play. But this TTFF has to be a better functional entity.