I AM sorry for everyone who plays football in and for Trinidad and Tobago but the senior players in their present dilemma have my deepest sympathy and ongoing respect (even if they don’t always demand to be treated with such).
Right now, they are being made scapegoats in TnT’s failing effort to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.
As patriotic and as hopeful as they might be, as available as they may make themselves at a moment’s notice, as hard as they push beyond their limits, they are not being met on the half by administrators to enable them to blend as a team.
I am talking here about failure to provide (1) adequate warm-up matches in terms of quantity and quality of opposition, not to mention opposition relevant to the style of those the team is preparing to meet; (2) a thorough technical analysis of the imminent opponent; and, most importantly, (3) the introduction of a psychologist or team motivator of some sort.
The absence of these three key elements is the reason we are not seeing substantial improvement or consistency in spite of a change in coach and the reintroduction of David Nakhid, Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy.
I am not saying there has been no improvement whatsoever, but no “substantial improvement”.
And even where there has been a hint of progress it has not been permanent, just fleeting.
I have seen enough failed World Cup campaigns to envision what will follow the next match in Panama City: None other than the players would be blamed for their (a) mere functional grasp of the fundamentals of ball control, (b) inconsistency, (c) lack of cohesion, (d) insipidness, (e) low self-esteem/self-worth, (f) susceptibility, and (g) deficiency in purpose.
Yet, all seven of these faults are the result of the absence of the three key elements mentioned earlier; but the majority of us would never see that.
Let’s look closer at these faults.
FUNCTIONAL GRASP
Although employed for their skill in the game, the majority of TnT’s players (overseas and locally-based alike) have difficulty with basic ball control.
Their skill is not at the level where first-touch control puts the opponents under immediate pressure.
Usually, they would miss-trap the ball, lose it outright or chase it in another direction after the first touch, thereby giving the rivals chance to recover.
INCONSISTENCY
There is improvement to one or more of the other six faults in one match followed by a reversion in the very next game.
LACK OF COHESION
It remains clear throughout any 90-minute game that TnT players do not know each other well.
They play in separate leagues spread over four continents (Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania) under different living conditions, different match conditions and with different functions in clubs of varying quality, finance and philosophy re football.
They come together for a FIFA-stipulated four days before an A-class international match, to be prepared by a coach who may or may not be able to grasp all of this in context of his game plan.
INSIPIDNESS
It is quite common to see long periods of non-creativity or, bluntly put, dullness in TnT’s game.
It is a time of bad passes, aimless back passes, no one running off the ball for passes, and nearly everyone ducking the responsibility of being inventive by getting rid of the ball too quickly.
LOW SELF-ESTEEM/SELF WORTH
They give away the ball too easily.
They allow opponents’ dirty tactics to throw off their game, yet on another day would take pressure like gentlemen without resorting to the same ruse. Also, they play with certain machismo against some teams (though not consistently) but with indifference against certain others (consistently!).
Be it colour, name, superpower status or football pedigree, some countries are allowed to feel they are guaranteed points against TnT.
For example, many people in this country started talking about fourth place since FIFA announced the draw, as if to admit we expect nothing better.
SUSCEPTIBILITY
Lameness in attack and the porous nature of our midfield and defence find a conduit in functional grasp, lack of cohesion, insipidness and low self-esteem.
DEFICIENCY IN PURPOSE
It is never clear, after a 90-minute game, what was the team’s plan in attack and of attack, in defence and of defence; what strength they capitalised on with careful planning, what opposition weakness they either knew of, detected or gnawed at that helped limit their own worries, if not get a result.
I can go on and on about these seven areas of deficiency, except, the point is already overstated. Admittedly, these deficiencies lie within the players.
The development programme that took them to this stage with so many flaws is therefore at fault.
Football’s managers and directors of that flawed development programme are therefore at fault.
But let’s not digress.
There were ways to work around these flaws for this current campaign, namely (as mentioned before): adequate warm-ups, technical analyses and team motivation.
This would have given them a second chance, denial of which constitutes negligence, considering their failed development.
The purpose of warm-ups is known worldwide.
What is the use of summoning Nakhid, Yorke and Latapy out of retirement along with bringing a plethora of players from four corners of the globe without giving them an opportunity to gel?
Hutson Charles credits the time spent living together for the Strike Squad’s comparative success.
FIFA’s four-day allowance is too tight to fit in strenuous activity, while to call players for a non-World Cup match would exhaust the players’ reasonable quota of breaks from the club in one season.
It beats me how someone would decide that no warm-ups are the answer.
Similarly, in spite of having limitations that cause concern, intimate knowledge of the opponent can turn even a coward into a victor.
For instance, George Bush was fully aware that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction, no blueprints for weapons of mass destruction and no capability for weapons of mass destruction.
All his country’s long-time friend-cum-dad’s-nemesis had was a strong surface-to-air arsenal which war-hungry generals knew could be taken out from hundreds of miles away in the Gulf and neighbouring friendly states, followed by carpet bombing air raids, then the advance of troops to run the “bayonet” through anything that still moves, a la “This one’s still alive!” Bang! “Not anymore.”
He sanctioned war more on the premise that well ... “Saddam (must have) thought about weapons of mass destruction” anyway; but the point here is, whatever his country’s insecurities, he was fully aware of the true limits of the opponents, internal religious differences included.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t support blood for oil; this is mere reference to support my belief that TnT football will achieve better results despite limitations, once we study the opponents diligently.
We are clearly bound for failure when our coach can admit to not having an opportunity to look at or study opponents.
I hope that we so far observe how the absence of warm-ups and intelligence-gathering impact on the team’s functional grasp, inconsistency, cohesion, insipidness, self-esteem/self-worth, susceptibility and purpose.
The third and final key element, team motivation, can positively impact upon the seven faults in the absence of the other two elements.
We must never be without a team psychologist because the mental well-being of players needs to be looked after.
He or she will grill players of the importance of each match so as to build the right hype and mindset.
In the course of this, he or she might even detect other problems affecting the players.
We continue to make the mistake of wholesale importation of foreign-based players under the assumption that their “big club” would handle all their individual quirks, fitness concerns, game flaws and tactical development.
So, we put nothing into these areas.
Nobody knows what the player’s true worth to his club is or how the reality of it affects him.
We simply put them on the field; call out the crowds and say, “play”!
It is clear from the failures of the current campaign that we need to shift the balance to have a fully-trained local team as the nucleus and use select foreign-based as supplemental.
I fear the very same stumbling blocks lie in wait for future generations if we continue like this.