Warriors’ first day in Germany

The first day in Deutschland was undoubtedly beyond anything ever experienced by a TT athlete or team in a foreign country as the red carpet was rolled out for the team to make its way off the Lufthansa flight which arrived in Bremen from Frankfurt shortly around 10 am (4am TT time). Little kids dressed in white and with miniature TT flags lined the carpet as the players and staff members made their way onto the official team bus which carried the slogan — Here come the Soca Warriors — the fighting spirit of the Caribbean. Even at the stop off for the connecting flight in Frankfurt, the team was privately escorted to the security check point away from all other regular travellers.

On the 30-minute bus drive from Bremen, the Mayor of Rotenburg Detlef Eichinger accompanied the team but as the bus made its way into actual Rotenburg, out of nowhere were scenes of fans, both young and old waving TT flags, punching the air and blowing kisses. And on every other building the TT flag was hanging prompting team members on board the bus to excitedly say “But they even have more flags up here than we have at home.”

The arrival appeared planned as the two escort police vehicles stopped about 400 metres away from the hotel and the contingent had to walk the remaining distance to the sounds of steel drums from a German band with hundreds of curious onlookers, none without flags, applauding and trying to get a touch of the “Soca Warriors”.

Beenhakker would have had the experience of a World Cup with the Dutch national team but he surely would not have gone through the kind of overwhelming welcome given to Yorke’s team here.

Mayor Eichinger also hosted the team for a short time at the city hall where the members were requested to sign the city’s golden book and received gifts of ancient weapons used in war such as spears and arrows.

At the same time, there will be no worries over security as any TT contingent leaving the hotel will have police escort. At Sunday’s training session there were no less than 12 security officers and seven police officers and for sessions open to the public there will be some 30 security officers at the training pitch. At the hotel at all times will be ten security officers along with FIFA security officer Gunther Grath and ex-brigadier John Sandy.

The security escorts had to do their bit to hold off some rushing fans who were anxious to get hold of some of the players, in particular Chris Birchall who was chased by adoring fans. It was all in good light as the officers too had to laugh as they got the fans out the way. “ Now I don’t know what they would do if David Beckham was here,” Birchall joked.

Yorke could not hold back the emotion of what he said is part fruit for the country for its World Cup qualification.

“Of course it’s overwhelming for all of us. They came out in their numbers. The city certainly feels like a West Indian party because of the number of flags and soca music and steel drums and everything that you can think of that we have back home. These people have really gone out of their way,” Yorke told TTFF Media.

It was a definite boost in light of three successive defeats.

“It’s a pretty upbeat situation that we are in. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves because the fact is that we played against the world number two team and they taught us a lesson on the first half. Once we got used to it, we were three goals down but you have to give credit to the guys for the second half performance. The good thing is that we learn from these kind of games.

“The country obviously will benefit a lot from it and the amount of publicity that is surrounding the team and the players is amazing. Of course it’s an experience that we all have never been in before and we are here to experience something historical. Hopefully that may continue for the years ahead. This is a special moment for us and I think we all should just sit back and enjoy it but obviously don’t get caught up in it too much but try and see what we can achieve here as a team as well,” Yorke ended after finishing dinner with his teammates at the luxurious Landhaus hotel.

The team had one session yesterday morning following which FIFA officials visited the hotel to handle the official team accreditation for the World Cup. Then in the evening period the Warriors travelled to Hamburg to face German Third Division side FC St Pauli in a specially arranged training match done by team sponsors eBay.

The game that was planned in aim of boosting the team’s profile here for the World Cup attracted massive interest as they played to a live viewing audience of an estimated ten million German fans since the game was aired by one of the country’s biggest networks ZDF and another 20,000 fans at the ground. It has been evident during the previous camps, particularly in Austria and Prague and now in Rotenburg that TT has won many new friends.