Yes, we can beat Bermudans!By PETER O’CONNOR Sunday, June 22 2008
THIS afternoon our Soca Warriors take on Bermuda, in their capital town Hamilton in a match that they not only must win, but must win by two clear goals.
Should we beat Bermuda 1-0, the “aggregate score” will be 2-2, and Bermuda will advance, having scored two goals in Trinidad — the “away goals rule”.
If we can win 2-1, the score will be tied 3-3 on aggregate, with two “away” goals each and the match will go to extra time. If we can win 3-2 then, although we are tied 4-4 on aggregate, we will have the “away goals” advantage. Any draw will see us eliminated.
So, we must look for a 2-0, or a 3-2 or better, score, although 2-1 will give us a lifeline of extra time. Two questions arise: Can we do this? And, how did we find ourselves in this position? The answer to the first question is —Yes, we can! Whether we will is still to be seen. I was not able to be at the match at Marvin Lee, but I did manage to listen to most of it on the radio. I say “most of it” because 105FM are still locked in the Dark Ages and insist on breaking from the live action to insult fans with advertisements.
Clearly we did not live up to expectations, nor did we sound like the team we were against Jamaica a week earlier. We seemed to fall apart after the second goal, which was scored while Clayton Ince was lying very still on the grass. Should the referee have blown the whistle?
He did in the second half, when the Bermudan ‘keeper was on the grass! In the brief clip I saw on TV I thought that there was enough time for the referee to see Ince flat out, and to have blown. Was Ince faking his injury? I saw nothing to suggest that. Should Nusum (the Bermudan) have put the ball into touch? Well, he certainly was no Paolo Di Canio — the controversial Italian who played in England in the 1990s — and who, rising to head a ball goalwards, caught it instead when he saw the opposing keeper on the floor! He was awarded the FIFA Fair Play award. Nusum was awarded a goal!
However, that is all academic now, and TT, nice guys that we are, stopped playing in the belief that the referee was going to blow. Bad mistake — always play to the whistle. We were, as Coach Maturana said, far too anxious to get back into the game, and paid a heavy price for that anxiety.
This afternoon, we need to play our game, composed and steady, and hopefully, through the wings to open up the packed defence which Bermuda will be depending upon. We also need to scrap that utterly stupid 3-5-2 system which was a major fact in our loss.
The TTFF must tell every coach, now and in the future, that he is banned from using that system. I believe that we can win this afternoon, with the goals to carry us through, and I will be supporting in any way I can, although I am in Trinidad. But I am also aware of the possibility that we might not.
What are the consequences, other than being eliminated from 2010, should we fail? Well, because there is so much controversy around our football there will be massive “blaming” as various parties seek to make mileage over what will be an unfortunate national misfortune. Should this be allowed to override the true reasons for the loss, we will have failed ourselves in more ways than one. We were a confident team going into the Bermuda game, although I had warned, in this column, that Bermuda was a serious threat.
We took an early goal, as we so often do, than equalised, before falling apart on the Ince incident. We must not destroy all that we have built since the early 1980s, when the media were publishing editorials saying we were wasting time and money on youth development.
However, because the principals are now also politically antagonistic, we run the risk of destroying our football for political reasons.
