National football team head coach Leo Beenhakker will switch his focus to Bahrain and has told his players that he anticipates seeing them again from November 8 as they continue preparations for the first leg of the playoff spot with the Asian fifth place team at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on November 12.
Beenhakker and his players had dinner and a spoke of their immediate plans for further glory at a team meeting at the Crowne Plaza on Wednesday night after the 2-1 victory over Mexico.
“I said it from the start that we must play our own game and this is in fact what we did and I was even more proud in the way in which our guys went about in achieving this win,” Beenhakker said.
"The manner in which we fought during the whole game to turn around the result was amazing," he added.
"It was an historic win which has left the doors open for this country to go to the World Cup." Beenhakker, 63, who coached his native Netherlands at the 1990 World Cup finals, went on to say. "Time doesn't forgive and I'm more or less at the end of my sporting career. "This could be a fantastic finale for me to take part at another World Cup."
“If you don’t give only a few chances to the opponent and at the same time you create a handful of chances for your side besides the goals that you have scored then of course you can say that you are satisfied and say that you had a good game.”
Beenhakker along with his management team and skipper Dwight Yorke also wanted to thank the nation for the tremendous support offered to the team. The T&T Football Federation by extent also wished to express gratitude to all the fans, protective services, entertainers, match day officials and volunteers and the media for playing their part in a memorable victory on the “Journey to Germany.”
“It’s by far one of our more memorable days,” Special Advisor Jack Warner said. “The players demonstrated the greatest amount of character, the technical staff did their work and the people of this country rallied as we hoped for. I am extremely pleased with the way things turned out and this can only lead on to better things.”
Meantime, goalie Kelvin Jack is expected to be out for up to two weeks after pulling a hamstring tendon in the first half and had to be treated by team doctor Terence Babwah and team physio Zeph Nicholas.
The big Dundee ‘keeper was however too caught up in the victory to worry about his time away from the game for the rest of this month.
“I’m just delighted that we won. This was a terrific effort by the team. Everyone played well but you have to single out Stern John for two magnificent finishes. Anyone can miss a penalty but he showed real character to come back well. We defended well as a team and we deserved this win,” Jack told TTFF Media on Thursday.
Having to go off the pitch at the break after letting a goal up, Jack said he was never read to count the “Warriors” out.
“Even though we conceded I felt we were playing enough to get back into the game. Yes I was very disappointed to come off. I think the Mexican scored a brilliant goal. It probably was the best ever scored on me with that sort of skill to chip it home from 12 yards out. Even though we went down at the time I still had the presence of mind to say what a finish that was. But at the same time I still knew we had it in us to pull this one off. We still have two important games and we must all remain focused as a team and as a country,” Jack added.
All the overseas-based pros headed by captain Dwight Yorke departed for their respective clubs on Thursday.