Let’s see what happens now.
Trinidad and Tobago, under the direction of the recently-arrived Stephen Hart and, I suppose, the general supervision from distance of Leo Beenhakker, are out of the Gold Cup. But they played better than expected, even when going down by the only goal of the game to Mexico in the quarter-finals in the United States on Saturday night.
Better, certainly, than under the watch of co-head coaches Jamaal Shabazz and Huston Charles, notwithstanding the fact that it was the local pair who qualified the national side for the premier tournament in the CONCACAF region. Now, just so the issues aren’t confused, it doesn’t mean that Raymond Tim Kee’s decision to bring in Hart and recall Beenhakker last month must automatically be seen as an inspired decision by the Football Association boss or indeed validates the widely-shared view that the only way our football can make positive strides on the international stage is exclusively through foreign or foreign-based expertise.
What our many supposed football experts need to tell us is what the Trini-born Canadian and venerable Dutchman were able to impart that resulted in such a significant improvement in the team’s performances in such a short space of time. Assuming they can be honest and not engage in the usual charade of banging their own drums or kissing up or talking a lot while saying nothing so as not to jeopardise the removal of their snouts from whatever trough it is buried in, it would be interesting to hear if the change is as a result of superior tactical awareness or better inter-personal skills, or a combination of those and other elements.
Or was it simply a case of having most of the best players available for the first time in a few years? Why did it appear that Kenwyne Jones, often a disinterested spectator for most of his previous 55 internationals, was so much more involved, not just from the point of often being the battling lone target man up front, but so obviously vocal and energetic in urging on his teammates?
Speculation will no doubt continue over whether the national side would have been able to pull off the shock victory over the Mexicans, and not just frustrate them until Raul Jimenez’s 84th minute goal, if Khaleem Hyland was still there to bolster the midfield. In agreeing to the return of the player to his Belgian club Genk following the group phase of the competition, was Tim Kee essentially conceding that either he didn’t expect the team to reach the knockout phase or, on the other hand, that making the quarter-finals was mission accomplished whatever else transpired?
Based on what we’ve seen of Panama, not just in the 6-1 thrashing of Cuba in the first game of the double-header in Atlanta but also the general style and substance of their play in the group phase, it’s probably just as well that we didn’t advance to meet them in the semi-finals on Wednesday. The pace at which they play, coupled with the skill level, would have had us chasing shadows and left Jan-Michael Williams more exposed in goal than he was against Mexico.
Panama kicked off the tournament by upsetting the Mexicans and should prove the result was no fluke by eliminating the defending champions on the way to the final. It would be interesting to get a better understanding of what has accounted for the significant improvement in the quality of their football and whether it can be explained by a better domestic structure, the role of head coach Dely Valdes (a Panamanian by the way), the availability of all the top foreign-based talent, or the happy coincidence of all three factors.
An hour into the game at the Georgia Dome, Hart was seen on the sideline motioning to his players to cool it, to slow down the pace of the game. However the tempo can only be dictated if you control the ball. That clearly wasn’t the case for Trinidad and Tobago, as well as they played. The tactics of that quarter-final was a throwback to the World Cup finals in Germany seven years ago, when Shaka Hislop in goal defied Sweden in the opening game but eventually succumbed to cumulative pressure with less than ten minutes to go in the following fixture against England.
This time though, there was no consolation along the lines of Peter Crouch pulling on Brent Sancho’s dreadlocks in leaping for the telling header. Even if the defence was playing with a bit more cohesion and determination, to be giving away possession so regularly coming out from the back meant that the Mexicans, even with their growing nervousness and palpable sense of panic, were able to try, try and try again until they eventually broke through.
So let’s see if we can actually build from this Gold Cup experience.
In the absence of a World Cup qualifying campaign to return to, will the national team now become effectively dormant until the next Caribbean Football Union tournament and, hopefully, Gold Cup in two years’ time? Will the next international game, whenever or wherever it is played, result in another deal being swung by the TTFA president that complements or contradicts what has just been put in place?
Even if the Gold Cup experience was encouraging, translating that into continuous improvement and greater consistency requires a level of discipline and respect for process that goes against the grain of the way the business of football is conducted around here.