The 86 WC campaign was doomed by that impasse between jack and the ASL/pro league "rebels". So basically that was a b squad. Alibey, Ron Laforest, Spann, Brian Williams and so other good players did not play. The late Roderick Warner(RIP) was the coach. Then the WC for Italy, Gally was in charge, and he brought in some youth with the experience and the rest was history.
Gally was averse to having those "college" players in his team...even though some of those same college players helped him to qualify for the Hex in the first place....in particular Chinapoo, Skeene, and Anton Corneal all of whom played in that deciding match in Tegucigalpa that qualified us for the Hex in 1989. It was Skeene's cross that Chinapoo challenged and resulted in Hutson Charles tapping into a nearly empty net for the tie.
None of Chinas, Skeene, or Anton played in the Hex. Nakhid was ignored.....allegedly because he dared to question Gally's tactics? And Verron Skinner....who was also highly thought of at the time and another college boy out of Trinity....was also not drafted in. Same for Shaka...."who's dad had a disagreement with Jack" if I not mistaken.
Gally had his boys and it was his right. The only major addition to the core of his strike squad team was Elliot Alleyne. Hard luck for the rest of them...especially the college boys...who were being heavily touted by Alvin Corneal in particular.
My personal belief is that Gally was determined to prove that a completely "local" based squad....with players not playing "outside" would qualify for the world cup.
Ironic if that's the case given that Gally himself was one such player in the 73 squad. That he came so close to achieving that goal is no small feat for Gally. But also remember that US was a bunch of college boys at the time and there was no Mexico to contend with.
