Deposed national football coach Bertille St Clair has urged the Trinidad and Tobago public to continue to support the team.
In what was his last media conference as coach of the "Warriors", St Clair felt that the fans should give their continued support to the team, which he said still had a great chance to qualify for the 2006 World Cup, despite a poor start to the final round, with just one point from three matches.
"The guys have recognised that they didn't give the kind of performance that we deserve (against Guatemala last Saturday). I know people would say they see it on television, but the boys played well. They gave up some soft goals. Most of the time you would say I am making excuses.
"What we need to do...and I'm asking the public to rally behind the team. The team is not Bertille St Clair-the team is Trinidad and Tobago.
"If you look at the game (against Guatemala)," he said, "we lost that one by five goals and we didn't deserve that. In the game against the USA we could have come back in the last few minutes and equalised."
In a shake-up of the technical staff by the T&T Football Federation yesterday, St Clair was removed as coach, a position that will now fall to Dutchman Leo Beenhakker.
Former national captain Russell Latapy will join the squad in the capacity of assistant coach, along with David Nakhid, another former skipper.
Last month, Latapy had turned down a request by the TTFF to join the squad as a player, instead offering his services to the technical team.
"I believe that I would best serve my country as a coach. This is not an attack on the current head coach (Mr St Clair) or his staff, but the reality is that my eventual retirement from playing is definitely approaching," the 36-year-old Latapy had said.