National midfielder Russell Latapy has made a call for the Trinidad and Tobago faithful to ignore the so called “psychological warfare” surrounding the upcoming 2006 World Cup playoff with Bahrain and to just let the football on the pitch do the talking for the “Warriors”.
The Scottish-based midfielder made his feelings known on Tuesday on hearing of the various reports regarding David Nakhid’s link to the Bahrain FA and the possible arrangements between the Jamaican Football Federation and Bahrain to help the latter in their preparations for the games.
“Obviously with such important matches coming up you cannot count out the chances of such things surrounding the actual event. Whether it’s concerning the Jamaica or the Panama Federation, people really always have money involved in these situations and at the end of the day they are doing what they think they have to do. And if in fact they are thinking along those lines then it is a sad thing and it’s the same with David. He might be doing what he thinks he has to do and if that information is in fact true, I could tell you it’s not something I would have done,” Latapy told TTFF Media.
The former Porto star emphasized the need for the “Warriors” not to get sidetracked.
“We as a team have to concentrate on how we display ourselves,” Latapy said. “We must get our heads down and come back as fit as possible. Unfortunately we don’t have enough time to prepare as they have but I think once we can come back as fit as possible and work has hard as ever, then we could definitely get a big result at home which is what we need to do.”
“We cannot get sidetracked by what the others are doing. Trinidad and Tobago getting to the World Cup has nothing to do with Bahrain, Jamaica or David. We must do our homework on them as they will be doing on us. As a nation we must keep supporting and doing the things that have gotten us to this stage.”
“Latas” had a message to the public at large.
“Remember it’s not going to be easy for us.No g.ame is easy in football Our heads and feet must be on the ground at the same time. The nation has to be the twelfth man for us. The support against Mexico was fantastic and it surely did motivate us. We have reached this far because we have done it together. We prepared well and we got the result. It’s time to vibes it up again T&T,” Latapy ended.