Lessons from history
What an effort! To come away from the heights of Quito with a goalless draw must hand Trinidad and Tobago the psychological edge going into the December 2 return fixture at home against Ecuador for a place in next year’s Women’s World Cup finals in Canada.
They were determined, disciplined and utterly committed to achieving their goal of getting a result from the game, even if it meant indulging in blatant time-wasting. But that’s over now...and the scoreline is still 0-0. This is definitely not the time to take victory on home soil for granted, to do as so many of us did 25 years ago when the men’s team, led by Clayton ‘JB’ Morris, needed just a draw against the USA at the National Stadium (it was renamed the Hasely Crawford Stadium subsequently) to qualify for 1990 World Cup finals in Italy.
Maybe it’s a good thing that the silver anniversary of that historic November 19, 1989 experience coincides with the 22-day countdown to the women’s team’s own date with destiny. There’s no way that they should be allowed to be sucked in by such premature euphoria as occurred then, for the Ecuadoreans certainly have the personalities in their line-up to do what Paul Caligiuri did on an evening that so many of us will never, ever forget for all sorts of different reasons.
As usual, we have been slow to get on board, to believe that this team was actually capable of getting to the big stage. But after the agonising near-misses against Costa Rica and Mexico in the final phase of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in the USA, and especially now that the squad has come away relatively unscathed from arguably their most taxing physical test, the players will now have to almost be insulated from the bandwagonnists.
Back in 1989 it was really bad, with a “Red Day” on the Friday before the game, a public holiday announced for the day after the game, sponsors’ money pouring in like Kaiteur Falls and tickets being deliberately oversold as almost everyone sought to cash in on the extravaganza while conveniently overlooking one small point: the USA were also dreaming of World Cup qualification glory and were intent on keeping their heads and not losing focus while most of us already had our heads in the clouds and forgot that there was still a game of football to decide the issue.
They may not be able to resist the parasitic politicians, desperate as they always are to latch on to something positive and popular, even moreso now that a general election is due inside a year. However their public appearances need to be managed carefully to avoid it becoming a distraction from preparation for the all-important game.
There’s a delicate balance to be struck here in ensuring that the goal of qualification is in no way compromised while at the same time being accessible enough to feed off the support of newly won over fans. They shouldn’t, as on that fateful day in 1989, have to endure a tiring bus ride from Forest Reserve and greet thousands of fans all along the route to Port of Spain. At the same time though, it’s also counter-productive to blank the public and media lock, stock and barrel.
It would be pleasantly surprising if the hype intensifies to anything like we saw way back then or nine years ago when Dennis Lawrence’s second half header in Bahrain turned the improbable dream of a ticket to Germany 2006 into a delirious reality. Still, even if we haven’t all woken up to it yet, reaching the Women’s World Cup football finals is a big, big deal for a country as small as ours, especially with a women’s structure that has always been struggling for support in its relatively short existence.
Ecuador will be ruing not making home advantage count, but in Monica Quinteros and Elizabeth Caicedo, their two attacking second half substitutes from the first leg, they have players with the pace and sharpness to capitalise on any lethargy or complacency in the Trinidad and Tobago defence in the rematch.
More than anything else, and if this from an entirely selfish personal perspective, the protracted pursuit of World Cup qualification means that every one of the key stakeholders in West Indies and Trinidad and Tobago cricket can keep on playing the arse and I don’t have to waste time or space on it.