Leonson supports 'Strike Squad' duo.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
Former Trinidad and Tobago footballer Leonson Lewis at the Hasely Crawford Stadium during last week's international Masters Tournament, at which his team, the Strike Squad, successfully defended their title. Photos: ANISTO ALVES.Leonson Lewis still stiffens up and swells his chest when he hears Trinidad and Tobago's national anthem played at the Hasely Crawford Stadium.
Lewis, 38, misses the thrill of battle, the adrenaline rush that comes from important matches. And none come bigger than the games in the red, white and black strip.
Sixteen years ago, Lewis was on the field when Trinidad and Tobago's national football team-dubbed the "Strike Squad"-came within a point of qualifying for the 1990 World Cup only to fall 1-0 to the visiting United States.
As the country again flirts with a World Cup place, only two Strike Squad players remain in active duty and, perhaps unsurprisingly, Lewis is grateful for the connection.
Arguably Trinidad and Tobago's deadliest striker of the 1990s, Lewis offered generous praise for his former teammates Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy.
On November 12 and 16, he hopes the pair help their teammates to outdo Bahrain in a two-legged play-off for a 2006 berth in Germany at football's showcase tournament.
"If you can pick two players to represent Trinidad and Tobago in a World cup," said Lewis, "it would be Russell and Dwight. Russell to me is by far the best player ever to put on a Trinidad and Tobago jersey. And Dwight deserves to play (in a World Cup) because he is the most famous player from Trinidad and Tobago.
"So there you have the best talent Trinidad (and Tobago) ever produced and the most famous and I would like them to both go."
Perhaps there is an cathartic element in his blessings. The idea of Strike Squad players-even just two members of the outfit-competing in a World Cup is intoxicating to Lewis.
As the ghost of November 19, 1989, still haunts football fans and well-wishers of that era, so too the communion of the Strike Squad lingers on.
"We are a bunch of people who have been through something together," said Lewis.
The old teammates still get together at least four times a year and are considering forming a committee that will press, among other things, to make November 19 into a National Heroes Day.
They rarely discuss that day anymore but Lewis confessed that, a generation later, he could still recall the emotion of the event. At the time, it was too much for a team and administration consisting solely of amateurs.
The team decided to stick to their routine by setting up camp at Forest Reserve in South Trinidad rather than moving to a closer location like the US squad, who stayed at Holiday Inn (now Crowne Plaza) on Wrightson Road, Port of Spain.
But, on match day, everything around the team had changed.
Lewis recalled the uproar when the Strike Squad, flanked by hundreds of fans, turned up at an Oropouche church for their traditional morning service.
"To get to the church, in the church and out of the church was real terrible," he said. "I remember my aunt was there crying: 'Oh God, Leonson. Look how far you reach Look how far the football take you. We never believed the football could take you so far.'
"I had to be consoling my aunt because she was in a mess. The whole thing was mad. People were snatching you and pulling you and giving you all sorts of advice.
"When we were on the highway, everybody driving alongside you blowing horns and you were seeing red on people's houses and on banners and everywhere We did not think it could be so big.
"By the time we got in the stadium, we were mentally tired."
Lewis, who was 22 at the time, went on to become one of Trinidad and Tobago's more successful exports in Europe and played professionally for more than a decade in Portugal.
At present, Lewis is assistant coach to Stuart Charles-Fevrier at T&T Pro League leaders Vibe CT 105 W Connection, as well as the club's under-18 head coach.
He does not believe Trinidad and Tobago are producing the calibre of players they did in previous decades but he is convinced that the Pro League is on the right path. He praised the attitude of the local players.
"You see a different pride in the (local) football, especially where the Cups and so on are involved," he said. "I think we can only go forward from here."
Lewis, who is in his fourth year as a coach, spoke in glowing terms about the tactical nuance of Fevrier. He dreams of eventually emulating the St Lucian by taking over the post of Trinidad and Tobago senior team coach, although he urged players to show their regional coaches the same respect as they do Europeans and South Americans.
On November 12, his first instinct may be to think as a player and not a coach when he watches his country square off against Bahrain. He knows the pressure that awaits national players like Stern John, Kelvin Jack and Carlos Edwards better than most.
Sixteen years on, he still plays over their fateful loss in his mind.
"There was a situation in the game where I hit a shot with my right foot and it hit a defender and almost scored," he said. "It was like inches away. I still see that up to today. If that had scored, everybody's life would have changed. It haunts me up to today.
"I started playing professional football and you try hard to win every game but if you lose you don't cry because you lost something that meant so much. It was like something died and you can't get it back." Victory against Bahrain, particularly with Yorke and Latapy in the line-up, will go some way towards easing the pain.
Stern holds World Cup keys.
By: Lasana Liburd (Express).[/size]
Johnny be good.Walter Winterbottom, a former England international football coach in the early 1960s, loved to discuss the science of tactics with his players and team talks could entail lengthy soliloquies on a variety of elaborate passing moves involving several players.
But the conclusion of his speech, according to then player and future England coach Bobby Robson, rarely changed.
"At the end of all that," he said, "Jimmy (Greaves) will score a goal."
Greaves, a typically self-assured striker, embraced the responsibility without feigning modesty.
"Do you want me to score with my left foot or my right?" he asked his coach.
It is hard to believe that a similar relationship does not exist between Trinidad and Tobago coach Leo Beenhakker and his prolific striker, Stern John.
Or that the national players, when searching the dressing room for their likely source of goals, do not let their eyes linger on John.
A former Real Madrid and Ajax boss, Beenhakker could surely dress up Trinidad and Tobago's approach with loads of tactical jargon. But the end result is thus: If Aurtis Whitley and Chris Birchall close down space for the opposition's midfield and the back four and goalkeeper are solid behind them, and Dwight Yorke, Carlos Edwards and Russell Latapy help the team keep possession long enough for the right opening to present itself John will probably sneak us a goal.
Beenhakker's preference for a formation with just one recognisable forward is testimony to his faith in the England-based striker.
John's returns of six goals-from a team total of eight-in seven qualifying matches under the Dutch-born coach showed that the ploy works. And his country is desperate for an encore on November 12 and 16 when Trinidad and Tobago face Bahrain in a Play-Off contest for a 2006 World Cup qualifying spot.
Bahrain's chances for success hinge on cutting off John's supply lines.
Does Beenhakker have a plausible 'Plan B'?
Hopefully, Trinidad and Tobago fans would not need to find out, although one is left slightly unnerved if too much attention is paid to John's career in England's League Championship division at present.
On Saturday, for the second successive week, John did not win even a spot among the substitutes at Derby County. And, for the fifth consecutive week, Derby failed to win.
To date this season, John played six times for employers, Coventry City, and seven times for Derby, who took him on loan with a promise to purchase in January. He has not scored a goal for either party and his contributions were jeered by fans of both clubs this year.
He is desperate to prove them wrong.
In that regard, John epitomises the spirit of a squad of largely undervalued exports.
Yorke may be settled in Australia but he surely feels that he had more to offer the English Premier League, where he won silverware with three of his four clubs-Aston Villa, Manchester United and Blackburn Rovers-before being released by Birmingham City in May.
Goalkeeper Kelvin Jack and striker Jason Scotland must think themselves better than the Scottish First Division; Latapy would feel he merits a place among the globe's best players; while Whitley and Cyd Gray are desperate to prove their mettle at a level higher than the T&T Pro League.
Beenhakker, who failed to take a talented Dutch team past the World Cup second round in 1990 and was axed by the Saudi Arabian FA after steering their outfit to the 1994 tournament, did not choose Trinidad and Tobago for the nights out either.
Intertwined in their personal ambitions is a desire to make their family and loved ones proud and, as professionals, to play to win.
It makes a potent package of talent and temperament and Bahrain are guaranteed a testing encounter.
John represents our cutting edge. With 18 World Cup qualifying goals, he is already in virgin territory for a Trinidad and Tobago international.
Whatever his returns in the play-offs, John's place in local football history is assured. But, if he scores in either leg, he can take his teammates with him.
He might not be Beenhakker's best player but the team might not survive two off-colour performances from the 29-year-old striker.
As late reggae star Peter Tosh sang, 'Johnny be good'. Trinidad and Tobago's present World Cup dreams depend on it.
'Think Positive'..but long way to go.
By: Kern De Freitas (Express).[/size]
The Trinidad and Tobago "Warriors" go into Saturday's World Cup play-off against Bahrain needing a victory to ease the anxiety of a nation and put them in sight of Germany 2006.
But playing against a country from far away in the Middle East-which they have never faced before so have little knowledge of the players, conditions and abilities-may be the national team's biggest handicap.
Their task is even more challenging as they host the first leg, at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain, and then must make the long journey to Bahrain to play the clincher four days later at the National Stadium in Manama.
Sport Express spoke to some figures associated with national football to get their views on what is needed by the Warriors for the next two matches to capture a long-awaited berth at the World Cup, a feat Trinidad and Tobago have gone agonisingly close to accomplishing in the past, falling, or being tripped, at the final hurdle, for the 1974 and 1990 tournaments.
FORMER NATIONAL GOALKEEPER AND T&TFF TECHNICAL DIRECTOR LINCOLN "TIGER" PHILLIPS"Everything must be positive. Forget about the negative things, with (David) Nakhid and everything. Every person must have only one thing on their mind, and that is Saturday. One day and one game, and then we go. Don't even think about Germany. This is a moment we must manage and manage properly. The players will do (their part). But on the outside, we the spectators, the public, the sponsors, the press, must not get too crazy. We must take things in stride. In '89 we did not manage the moment properly, and I think we have the people to do it now.
"It's going to be two bruising games, my friend. It's going to be two hard-fought games...
"...Well we have to win, and we have to win by a convincing margin. The coach knows this, the players know this, because you need to get that home advantage and the more goals you score at home...because when we go away they will have a great home advantage over us, and it's better to play for a tie when we go there than to have to win by two clear goals. So we have to go on the attack and try to win without conceding a goal. If we can do that, then we can go to Bahrain in the driver's seat.
"The head coach is a wise coach. He has been stuck in like this before and he will make the right decision, without getting overawed. He relishes when it gets tough."
FORMER NATIONAL TEAM MANAGER RICHARD BRATHWAITE"I said it since last year...I maintain that the team will qualify.
"I think that the Bahrain game will not be an easy game, but I think Trinidad and Tobago is the better team, will be more technically-gifted and more experienced players.
"A lot will depend on Dwight Yorke and Russell (Latapy), particularly in a game of this nature, which is really the final hurdle. The atmosphere is going to be really electric because it is such an important game and therefore the more experienced players who have been through this before will play a crucial role. "But I expect a victory and I expect that we will be in Germany next year."
W CONNECTION AND FORMER SENIOR NATIONAL COACH STUART CHARLES-FEVRIER"Well, I think the chances are good. Because playing at home in the first leg of the competition and the team had shown they are capable of winning in the World Cup campaign thus far.
"Personally, I would prefer them to play away first. But that doesn't mean that even though they play at home first they cannot qualify. I think it all boils down to making sure that they don't make the same mistakes throughout the two games. Once they can keep their concentration and don't make silly mistakes, I think it is quite possible they can advance."
FORMER T&T STRIKE SQUAD SKIPPER CLAYTON MORRIS"Personally, l think that the players need to come up with up a big performance (in Saturday's game). The difference in this game and in the last game is we mustn't allow Bahrain to score. Mexico scored on us in the last game. The game was for points, but this game is more on the goals.
"It is important that you don't let any goals in at home. As well as we're going in attack, you don't want to preoccupy yourself in defence, but if you organise yourself in attack, they will be organised to defend.
"We are at home and want to attack as we want to score, but unlike when we played Mexico we went forward, we left some space in the back and we conceded a goal.
"And it's important for us as much to stick to our game plan. It's important when the coach gives the instruction that the players follow it as much as possible.
"...When I used to be out there and the coach gave the instruction, you were confident that you can go out there and perform. It's in that ten or 15 minutes of the game you can say 'hey, the players are performing, and following the instructions well'. The first ten to 15 minutes should be important in the game.
"You get that sense where the game can go, what the team is capable of doing and how your team is withstanding the pressure and how they carry out their instructions.
"I'm very optimistic we can pull it off, but I don't want to be like the people who figure that we are already in Germany. We still have 180 minutes to play and that is a very long time."
FORMER NATIONAL U-17 AND ST ANTHONY'S "TIGERS" COACH NIGEL GROVESNORVery good chance and we have to take advantage of it at home. But the result shouldn't be a 1-0, 2-0 or even 3-0, it must be 4-0 or 5-0. And we must not let them score, because we don't know what we're expecting over there.
"We know what we have, what we're going into (on Saturday at home), so once we know what we have here, we must take advantage of it.
"The only thing is, they come down here and will have a little more time to acclimatise. So we have to win and win big."
And can they reach the World Cup?
"...Definite, definite! There is no two ways about it. We have not reached so far just to give it away just so. We have learnt from '89, and we have to win now."
