T&T vs. Honduras

Date: 8^th March 2009

Location: The Hasley Crawford Stadium POS

My Location: In the stadium

Game: WC 2010 qualifiers vs. Honduras

Ticket Price: $200

Official: Walter Quesada Cordero (Referee)

Even though it hurts my heart to say it, I’m a Soca Warrior fan. This match was a sold out affair in Port of Spain, Trinidad. People came all out for this game and there was a certain air of expectancy. Granted that Honduras is a good side, we felt that the Soca warriors would put up a good fight against any opposition at home. After all they had beaten the Concacaf giants, the US, on this field.

The game started with Honduras grabbing the reigns from early on. They controlled the majority of the ball possession in the half, making the T&T midfielders look like pedestrians. The midfield quartet of Keon Daniel, Densil Theobald, Carlos Edwards and Anthony Wolfe were all lost at sea in the first half of play. The Hondurans were allowed the time and space to play their game which was very attractive at times, but also very demeaning to the Soca Warriors. Stern John was nothing more than a number for this entire half. For all of Honduras’ possession, they only created one clear cut chance in the first half. A raking pass was deftly taken down by Julio De Leon in the T&T box. His ensuing chip was painfully wide of the mark. But this was just a warning. The Hondurans were settled and were going to go for the 3 points.

Jason Scotland came close in the 38^th minute pulling a left footed shot from the right hand side of the opposition box and grazing the outside of the keeper’s left post. Jason Scotland seemed the most likely to open the scoring. His movement was impeccable and his swagger on the ball was a sight to see. He obviously took it upon himself to make up for the slack that was being left by Stern John and the midfielders. The half came to a close with the warriors obviously feeling dejected and the Hondurans clearly in the ascendancy. Hopefully the second half would see some changes and the game would become a little more balanced.

The second half started pretty much the same way that the first half ended, with Honduras controlling the midfield and T&T on the back foot. Then the break through came. Honduras captain Carlos Pavon put the visitors ahead in the 50th minute with a header after goalkeeper Jan Michael Williams weakly punched out Ramon Nunez's corner kick. T&T 0 – Honduras 1

As I’ve seen so many times before, this was the turning point in Trinidad’s game. They suddenly decided to hustle for the ball in the midfield, to spread the play and involve their wingers in attack. They began to show some inkling of footballing sense. Three changes were made by our ‘brilliant’ national coach; Russel Latapy, Kenwyne Jones and Khaleem Hyland were introduced. (Why did he leave on Stern John who has been a pedestrian for the 60 plus minutes is a mystery)

Latapy’s inclusion forced the other warriors to channel all their attacks through him. He brought a level of simplicity and intelligence to the Soca Warrior’s game that was definitely missing. It was through his inspirational play in the middle that made enough room for Hyland to sneak down the left flank and coolly bubble Latapy’s through ball through the Honduran keeper in the 90^th minute. T&T 1- Honduras 1

Personally, even though Trinidad gained a point from this encounter, I was totally ashamed of the team. For most of the game they looked like the away team, in a game that was anyone’s for the taking. Our midfield looked barren with the Hondurans setting up camp in the middle of the park. Our attack was down to one or two players at any point in time. We have ‘celebrated’ wingers that cannot cross a ball to save their lives, but I’ll talk about that in another post. All in all, the Soca Warriors have a lot of work to do before their match against the US National team if they are to avoid being drubbed.

AND MR. WARNER I WANT BACK MEH MONEY!!!!