Nostalgia: Trinidad’s 2006 World Cup debut – The Story Behind Their Journey
By The Home of Caribbean FootballAs part of our World Cup reflection series, here The Home of Caribbean Football attempts to relive Trinidad & Tobago’s 2006 journey by speaking to a former national player and native journalist…
The smallest country to ever feature in the World Cup finals, Trinidad & Tobago’s memories of their debut appearance at football’s global showpiece will never fade. To try and bring those experiences and stories back to life, The Home of Caribbean Football has produced this document…
Qualifying – Beating Bahrain…In BahrainWorld Cup qualification (WCQ) is always a long haul. For Trinidad, their road to Germany began in the summer of 2004 and ended in the winter of 2005 with 20 games sandwiched in between. The crux of this region’s WCQ is at the fourth round, also known as the “Hex”, as six teams are pitted against each other with four spots up for grabs, one of which a play-off. Trinidad were looking like credible candidates for finishing in fourth and thus clinching that play-off position with one set of matches remaining. Here were the permutations: as long as the Soca Warriors overcame Mexico they would be assured of not crashing out, with Guatemala right behind them ready to pounce. Guatemala won that day against Costa Rica, however, it didn’t matter as Trinidad got the job done versus the Mexicans inside a packed Hasely Crawford Stadium in the capital, Port of Spain. Stern John levelled prior to the break following an audacious Jaime Lozano opener for the visitors, before John was there again outside the penalty box to lash home.
The passionate home crowd exploded with happiness as the final whistle blew. Trinidad had secured fourth spot and would meet Bahrain of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in a two-legged play-off, first on home soil. In front of another crammed Hasely Crawford Stadium – the attendance just underneath 25,000 – Trinidad welcomed a Bahrain side that had also never featured in a World Cup. They were a good test, though, and Chris Birchall was the hero as his 76th minute strike salvaged a draw. Four days later in Manama, they met up again for the second leg and this was make or break. It was full of tension, nerves and fierce tackles. Backed by a noisy group of Trinidadian supporters, the visitors held their own in the first half and it was all square at the interval. But Trinidad made a brilliant start to the second and, following a Dwight Yorke corner from the left, colossus Dennis Lawrence rose highest to head home and send his country into delirium. Then-Wrexham defender Lawrence’s last goal prior to that was a month ago, against Bristol Rovers in a League Two game. Now he had just sent the Soca Warriors to their first ever World Cup. Apparently, the head of the Government, Patrick Manning, interrupted a speech in order to declare November 17 a public holiday. This is what it symbolised.
And the sweet thing was that Trinidad warranted their victory in tough conditions, as former goalkeeper Shaka Hislop tells The Home of Caribbean Football:
“They didn’t expect us to be as good as we were, and they certainly didn’t expect us to score. The frustration boiled over to a violent indiscipline on their part on the pitch, which was mirrored in the stands. Then Bahrain had a goal rightly disallowed which pushed them over the edge. After that it was a matter of avoiding serious injury on the field (some of the tackles that started to fly were career-threatening), and avoiding flying projectiles for those of us on the sidelines.” Indeed, when Yorke and Russel Latapy went over to the corner flag to try and run down the clock, they were getting all sorts of things thrown at them, as you should be able to see in the video clip above. Shaka continues:
“Once the final whistle went, it was just a case of timing your run to the middle of the pitch and out of range, and waiting for the madness to stop, which suited us just fine. We would have celebrated right there in the middle of the pitch all night long if they let us.”So it was confirmed: Trinidad & Tobago were heading to Germany to compete in the World Cup finals.
Read more (and see the pictures/youtube videos)
