After that whipping in Jacksonville last Tuesday, Trinidad and Tobago’s campaign to get to Russia in 2018 has taken on a different complexion.
It wasn’t just the emphatic nature of the 4-0 scoreline, but the manner in which the national team’s discipline and cohesion disintegrated so rapidly under pressure from the United States in the second half of that last game of the semi-final phase of CONCACAF qualification.
From the 2-2 draw at home to Guatemala four days earlier to that humbling experience in America, it has become increasingly clear that key senior players in the squad are struggling to deliver as expected. A lot of attention has inevitably focused on the listless performances of national captain and striker Kenwyne Jones, along with a defensive line that looks extremely vulnerable. But in such a flowing team game as football, they are not the only areas of concern.
If the defence remains suspect — and this can hardly be considered a revelation — it is a challenge made many times worse by the failure of the midfield to retain possession. That the United States were able to attack in a rapid succession of waves in Florida was only possible because every attempt to ease the pressure was stymied by both poor passing and a lack of urgency to get back behind the ball to at least give the defenders time to recover and regroup.
Head coach Stephen Hart didn’t mince words in his immediate reaction to the result, likening the ineffectiveness of some of his leading players to the equivalent of a disappearing act. Whether he got the answers that he was looking for behind the closed doors of the dressing room will probably become clear in the coming weeks, when he selects his squads for Caribbean Cup qualifiers next month.
As important as the regional competition is, that will obviously be a competitive opportunity to try to sort out these many problems ahead of the kick-off of the “Hex,” the six-nation home-and-away round-robin grouping from which the top three earn tickets to the 2018 World Cup Finals, while the fourth-placed finisher goes into a two-leg playoff against an Asian qualifier in November of next year, for one of the last remaining places among the 32 teams competing for the sport’s premier prize in Russia in less than two years’ time.
A look at the schedule of that final phase of qualifying suggests that it will be vital for Trinidad and Tobago to pick up points early, with three of their first four games being played at home. Of course, the other side of the equation is that four of the remaining six games will be away from home at a stage when boisterous crowd support could just be the extra edge in the quest for qualification.
By the time the opening game against Costa Rica rolls around on November 11 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, we will obviously know if Hart is satisfied that the existing nucleus of the squad can be reinvigorated to rise to the challenge or if he has been left with no choice but to go in search of other options to fill key positions in the line-up. Already, there have been suggestions that the available talent in the Pro League, while not completely deficient, is lacking in the necessary experience and expertise, and it may come down to the availability of the likes of the so far elusive John Bostock and other foreign-born or foreign-based players to bolster a squad that appears to be in need of a shot of adrenaline and inspiration.
For all the preoccupation with the quality of the United States and Mexico, it is the Costa Ricans who have the best record against Trinidad and Tobago in competitive games in this country, as they have not lost a World Cup qualifier here for 35 years. Having topped their preliminary group at Brazil 2014 and reached the quarter-finals, where they lost to Holland on penalties, they sauntered through their semi-final qualifying group on the road to Russia, playing unbeaten and winning five of their six games to move into the next stage as one of the favoured teams to get to football’s “Big Yard”.
Yet, even if the first opponents were Panama or Honduras, the challenge will still be at the feet of the Trinidad and Tobago team to rise to the occasion, to shake off the lethargy and indecisiveness of the past few games and make some sort of positive statement that will energise and captivate an often fickle home audience to get on board fully with the long final stage of the journey.
It won’t be long now before we know if last week’s Florida humiliation was a timely wake-up call or a worrying reality check.