Really bad timing! That is what I would want to call it, really bad timing. We chose the worst time to put in a bad performance. Should we have won this game? Yes. Did we deserve to win? No. Did Bahrain deserve this result? Yes. Are they a good team? No.
The Bahrain team was easily the weakest opposition that we have played in a competitive match under coach Benhakker; even Panama looked a better team than them. But as I said earlier, we chose the wrong time to play our worst competitive match!
Fellaz (and de ladies too), yesterday was real pressure, the most pressure I ever see to get in anywhere in my life! Cowen, Gary and I reach up shakers around 12:30pm and met up with Touches, Swima and Truetrini. After listening to some advice from Truetrini and his entourage about some of life’s more sensitive topics and batting down a few beers, we decided to head toward to Hasley Crawford.
We reached outside the stadium around 1:50 pm and to our ‘surprise’, we met about 5,000 people who also wanted to get in early, since gates opened at 2pm. It was now dat de madness start! Put some pushing, shoving, screaming, mash foot, crying, scalping, quarrelling, cursing, pick-pocketing, jamming, fainting, and wining in one large blender. Add about 30 police with machine guns, some jokey barriers, a big police bus, four horse-men with whips, four different ticket scanning points, some sexy women, and a dash of rain. Blend all of those ingredients for one and a half hours, pour into a glass and drink it. If you do the above, only then you would get a taste of what it was like to enter the stadium. (Although ‘swima’ couldn’t drink it down and had to go home)
After such a wonderful ‘beverage’, it was now time to look for seats. Cowen found Tallman, I found Touches, Touches found Truetrini, Tallman found Davjenny and the socawarriors.net crew started to assemble! We squeezed into some seats and watched how things started to unfold. Disgruntled Trini was also in the area with his straw hat.
The pre-match hype was great and the vibes in the stadium was overwhelming. Destra Maximus and Shurwayne Winchester had the crowd going
. They made laps around the stadium cycle track, hyping up the crowd who were loving every minute of it. Iwer George tried to join in but was breathless after to first 200 meters and could not be found after that! Lol. The stadium was filled by 4:30pm and everyone was waiting for this historic game to begin.
The teams came on to the pitch to rapturous applause, and when our anthem played, every Trinidad and Tobago national sang lustfully except the woman who sat in front of Touches and couldn’t keep ah hot dog out of her mouth.
We started with Jack in goal, Avery, Lawrence, Andrews, and Spann at the back. The five in the middle consisted of Latapy, Yorke, Edwards, Birchall and Whitley. Stern was the man alone up front.
TTTWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTT!! Game start and the warriors were on the go.
“TnT, we want ah goal…......…TnT, we want ah goal” The chanting start and we waited patiently for the early goal that never came. The warriors took a while to settle down, and had the first real chance when Whitley made some room for “me mum” to unleash a low right-footed drive that the keeper did well to parry wide. “things looking nice man” said one man in de crowd, “yuh see, yuh see, de pressure now start” said another. I whispered to Touches and Cowen that if we ent beat this side bad we, in a mess.
Bahrain is a “bake” side. They cannot trap, they cannot pass, and they have no composure on the ball. All they can do is pack their defence and midfield and we very quick on the counter attack.
Bahrain, however, did their homework, since neither Yorke, Stern, nor Latapy were given any room on the ball at all, but as the saying goes, one man’s loss is another man’s gain. The man who ended up with all the gain was Mr. Aurthis ‘Otis Seaton’ Whitley, who looked head and shoulders over everyone else on the field. It was a pity that no one else raised their game. Whitley was a beauty to watch. Everything went his way and the Bahraini players had no answer for is twists, his turns and his pin point accurate passing.
He couldn’t do it by himself though, and little by little, Bahrain came into their own and simply started to take the game to the Warriors. They simply took over the game after 25 minutes and we were looking a shadow of ourselves.
Yorke was having a bad game; there was hardly any link play from our ‘highly rated’ right wing players (Spann and Edwards); Latapy was man marked; Stern hardly got in a touch; Birchall was running down the ball all over the place and Avery had no confidence in his touch and his passing. Our Twin towers stood firm, and Lawrence even had a sharp header saved by a very alert Bahrain keeper.
HALF TIME: TNT – 0 BAHRAIN – 0
You coulda tell who the waggonists were and who die hards were at half time. The waggonists were wining and dancing, while the die hards had worried looks on their faces
We started the second half really nice with Whitley again pulling some serious strings in midfield. Yorke had a wonderfull chance right after the break, but his left foot shot went very wide, from just inside the box. The game was draining out into nothing affair when ‘Beenie man’ decided to wake everyone in the crowd up with a tactical change that would silence the crowd.
Coming on was St. Johnstone striker Jason Scotland and coming off was Russell Latapy
. Yes, you read right…….but if you cannot believe your eyes then I will type it again… coming off was Russell Latapy. My jaw drop, Tallman dredlocks started to grow and Touches tried to tell me something but all I saw were his moving lips.
“Oh lard” shouted one man, “we go lorse” he continued. I was too amazed to answer so I just relaxed and waited to see how this would unfold. Not too long after that, Spann (with his ‘tear up’ adidas jersey from all the pull he get) lost the ball and Bahrain countered. They won a corner and within a flash, a cross came in, three defenders missed the ball and an open Bahraini player headed the ball into the net. The 50 Baraini supporters went crazy, and the 24,000 Trinidadians were stunned silent.
Stern centered the ball at the half time quickly and we knew that we had 17 minutes to do something that we couldn’t do for the first 73. The warriors began to press and up stepped Christopher ‘me mum’ Birchall to blast the ball into the back of the net in similar fashion to the one he scored against Honduras in the Gold Cup.
Once again, you could see the difference between the die-hards and the waggonists. The die-hards celebrated, but with some measure of caution since we knew that we need another goal. The waggonists, on the other hand, celebrated as if we had just won the world cup!
We pressed for the remaining 10 minutes or so but we came up with nought. As it stands now, we are a bit behind the eight ball. The “away goal specialists” got their away goal so we must go to Bahrain and score, simple as that.
There were two major positives coming out of this game. The first was the fact that we received no yellow cards, and the other was the inspiring play of Aurthis Whitley.
We are better than this team and I very sure that once we put our act together, we will come away with the desired result against Bahrain in their homeland and make our first appearance in a senior World Cup
Ah love it!!
