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Promo for T&T vs USA

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Dwight Yorke comments after announcing his retirement from football, now becomes T&T Assistant Coach.. YouTube - Dwight Yorke's Retirement Comments - Part One

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Honduras top T&T 4-1


SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras – Carlos Pavon scored two goals and Honduras defeated visiting Trinidad & Tobago 4-1 in a World Cup qualifier Saturday night at the Estadio Olimpico Metropolitano.

The win took Honduras another step closer to an automatic place in South Africa, while Trinidad is on the verge of elimination with only five points from seven games.

The Catrachos, winners of three straight, dominated play from the opening whistle, making it eight wins in eight home qualifiers.

Pavon, who plays locally with Real Espana, put Honduras ahead in the 20th minute and added another eight minutes later. The 35-year-old striker now has 22 goals in 31 all-time qualifying games.

Captain Amado Guevara crushed any hopes of a comeback by the visitors, when he made it 3-0 in the 61st minute.

Spurred on by its throng of supporters, Honduras went in search of another goal.

David Suazo quenched the fans’ thirst with an 83rd minute strike. It was the 29-year-old’s first international goal since scoring against Puerto Rico on June 14, 2008. He has recently returned to fitness after a lengthy spell away from the game following an injury while on loan at Portugal’s Benfica last season.

Five minutes before time, Kerry Baptiste secured a consolation goal for the Soca Warriors, but it really was a case of too little, too late.

Next up for Honduras, which now tops the CONCACAF qualifying table with 13 points after Mexico's win at Costa Rica later in the evening, is a showdown against El Tri in Mexico City on Wednesday. Trinidad hosts the USA on the same day.

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US moves to verge of 6th straight World Cup berth
The Associated Press

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad — The United States moved within a win of its sixth straight World Cup appearance, beating Trinidad and Tobago 1-0 Wednesday night on Ricardo Clark's goal in the 62nd minute.

The United States failed to win its first three road qualifiers this year and played a listless first half. The Americans went ahead when Clint Dempsey played the ball wide to Landon Donovan, who cut the ball back to Clark.

Clark took a touch and let loose a bending 26-yard shot that swerved past goalkeeper Clayton Ince. It was just the second goal in 25 international appearances for the Houston Dynamo midfielder, who also scored against Paraguay in the Copa America two years ago.

At the time Clark scored, U.S. coach Bob Bradley was getting ready to replace him with Stuart Holden. Bradley then decided to leave Clark in.

The United States (5-2-1) moved into first place in the final round of North and Central American and Caribbean qualifying with 16 points, two ahead of Honduras (4-2-1) and four in front of Mexico and Costa Rica (4-3).

Mexico hosted Honduras later Wednesday and Costa Rica was at El Salvador.

The U.S. could clinch when it plays at Honduras on Oct. 14. The Americans close four days later at home against Costa Rica in Washington, D.C.

The top three teams qualify for the World Cup, and the No. 4 nation goes to a playoff against the fifth-place team in South America.

Trinidad, which made its first World Cup appearance in 2006, was mathematically eliminated from qualifying for the 32-nation field in South Africa next year.

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Ex-nationals blame blacklist, lack of preparation for Warriors failure.
By: Ian Prescott (T&T Express).

Fail to prepare...and prepare to fail.
TTFF waste momentum.

Several football technocrats, including former national coach Stuart Charles-Fevrier, ex-Strike Squad captain Clayton Morris and defender Brian William, believe that, like Jamaica after the 1998 World Cup, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) did not build on the momentum gained from a credible performance at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.

T&T's hopes of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa came to an end on Wednesday night when the Soca Warriors were beaten 1-0 by the USA at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, leaving them at the bottom of the CONCACAF group and out of the running with two games left to play.

Instead of putting together a younger team around core World Cup players, T&T football became embroiled in conflict, leading to the regular quick-fix scenario of trying to build on the eve of the 2010 qualifying campaign.

What was agreed upon is that solutions are now needed to be quickly found and the idea of building a team around the current Trinidad and Tobago Under-20 squad, who will compete at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Egypt later this month, seemed palatable to all those spoken to.

"There were too many problems. First it was the blacklist, then the firing of Wim (Rijsbergen). Then the removal of (national coach Francisco) Maturana...and (Russell) Latapy taking over," Charles-Fevrier said, first referring to the conflict between members of the 2006 World Cup team and the TTFF over the allocation of money generated by the Soca Warriors qualifying for Germany, then the sacking of Rijsbergen, who had taken over from Leo Beenhakker, the man who took T&T to the last World Cup.

"Also, the country fought for many years to make a World Cup and finally did it. We had the oldest team at the World Cup four years ago in Germany and I was surprised that we came back this campaign with basically the same team," he declared.

"It's no secret that if we want to compete with the top teams at this level (CONCACAF) we have to compete regularly at the level. I think what should be done now is to start building a new team and regularly expose these players to international football. By the time the 2014 campaign comes around the new players should have played 30-40 internationals. That will take away the fear factor against big teams."

Both Williams and Morris, teammates on the national squad which missed out on qualifying for the 1990 World Cup by just a point, agree that stakeholders must now meet and that the 2014 qualifying campaign should begin soon.

"It is clear preparation is not what it was supposed to be," said Morris, who felt that the blacklist played a significant part in hampering the Soca Warriors' preparations for the 2010 World Cup.

Williams added: "We spent two years doing nothing until the World Cup campaign came around. We had problems such as the blacklist of our World Cup players, which led to other problems with Mr Rijsbergen, who wanted the best available team. After the World Cup there should have been some continuity, but there wasn't."

Williams wanted to congratulate the Soca Warriors on the better attacking and defensive performance against the United States on Wednesday night, following last Saturday's 4-1 defeat away to Honduras.

However, with the 2010 campaign over, he believes that now is the time to plan ahead.

"We should start preparation for 2014 from the next two matches. I am not saying discard the experienced players, but at least start to incorporate some of the young ones into the team. I heard (TTFF special adviser) Mr. (Jack) Warner speak of building the 2014 campaign around the national Under-20s. I think that is a good plan," said Williams, who added that inexperienced national coach Latapy needed a reputable foreign coach to work alongside him.

"We have to sit down as a body, as football technocrats, and plan the future," Morris added. "We need to get all the heads together and plot the future to get the country's football back on track. Let us put differences aside."

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T&T has two games remaining next month away to CR and home to Mexico but regardless of the result the Journey to SA has ended..therefore this is my last post in this thread...However scores of future T&T matches will be provided in other threads of the forum

HIghlights of the game that knocked T&T out the campaign YouTube - USA Tops Trinidad And Tobago, 1-0