Edwards: Trinidad is no joke!

It revealed, most of all, the Soca Warriors can win a war of attrition.

“We fought like lions today,” midfielder Carlos Edwards said. “No one rated us before, but now they will know that Trinidad is no joke. This won’t be the last surprise we spring in the tournament.”

As the tournament goes on, Trinidad and Tobago has reason for optimism, considering the hurdles just jumped.

How will the smallest nation in the tournament respond to losing its starting goalkeeper moments before the opener? Quite well, apparently!

How would the least experienced team in the tournament handle playing most of the second half one man down? Quite admirably, thank you!

How will a defence, minus it’s starting centre back, hold off a goal hungry Swedish attack?

Well, quite nicely, if you’re asking!

“We ground out a result today and we fought hard all the way,” said striker Stern John. “We had some bad luck to get a red card so early in the second half, but we stayed together and played as a team and got a result when no one gave us a chance.

“We earned some respect and made some friends all over the world with this game. Hopefully we can make some more as the tournament goes on.”

Now, the Warriors will turn their attention to England, who needed an own-goal to squeak out a 1-0 win earlier yesterday. But there’s no doubt, the Brits will be paying equal attention to a team coach Leo Beenhakker believes has earned its place.

“There are no more small fish in international football,” Beenhakker said. “My boys put the big boys in their place tonight.”

Beenhakker made it clear that the Soca Warriors are not to be laughed at. “This is football, not mathematics and two plus two very seldom equals four, usually it’s three or five,” he said. “I could not be more proud of my players. They deserve this day.

“Look at their players from big clubs like Juventus and Arsenal and Anderlecht, look at ours from San Juan Jabloteh and New England Revolution...and look what we did. This is the beauty of our game.”

The Swedes, who were expected to cruise to victory, staggered off the field, with dejected heads and shattered confidence.

“I can’t really come up with an explanation for what happened,” Sweden coach Lars Lagerback said. “They have some skill and they really defended well today, but we have no one to blame but ourselves.” That the Soca Warriors were able to hold off Sweden was, in part, a testimony to the team’s defensive players, weakened by the absence of injured starter Marvin Andrews.

Brent Sancho played in his place and the Trinidad and Tobago defence still didn’t give up a goal.

“Our defence held the line pretty well and we did enough I think to get the point, especially after going down to ten men,” Sancho said.

“No one expected us to get a result in this game but we always believed. Who knows what can happen now? This is the biggest moment in our footballing lives and hopefully we will have bigger ones in this tournament.” Forward Cornell Glenn, whose drive late in the second half skimmed the cross bar and nearly vaulted Trinidad and Tobago into uncontrollable euphoria, said the effort was a result of hard work.

“We worked really hard together today,” Glenn said. “For weeks we’ve been putting in the hours and coming together as a team and it really paid off.

“We fought hard for each other, but we didn’t really play a great game. Hopefully we play better in our next match, but to not play your best and still get a result is a very good sign.”