Leo satisfied with TT progress

The 63-year-old Dutch-born Beenhakker, who guided Trinidad and Tobago to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany, spoke to the media on Tuesday at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port-of-Spain hours before leaving for Poland, where he was recently appointed as the team’s coach.

During the function, Beenhakker, members of his technical staff and former national footballers were handed cash rewards by the TT Government following the team’s qualification to Germany.

“We’ve had a great time,” said Beenhakker. “First of all, we were successful, we wrote history. It was based on a big effort from everybody, based on a great staff that I had around me, they were great people, they were professional, (and) players who showed me (they) had ambition,” he said.

The former Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Real Madrid coach was optimistic of the future for the team. “You have a lot of talent and at the end, a lot of confidence. So it has been a very successful and important year for me and my career,” he said.

Beenhakker, who replaced Bertille St Clair as TT coach in April 2005, and converted a struggling team into World Cup qualifiers, was also quick to talk about the team’s World Cup experience, particularly the use of veteran midfielder Russell Latapy, who only played in the June 20 Group “B” match against Paraguay.

“I had to make decisions on June 19 and then the conditions were so that I had to make the decisions I made,” Beenhakker stressed.

“Now, we’re in July and the situation is different. Everybody has their opinion,” he continued, with reference to the debates over Latapy and the goalkeeping pair of Shaka Hislop and Kelvin Jack. “Let me be very clear,” Beenhakker said. “We lived six weeks together with the players, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I think nobody can better see and make these decisions as the people who are living inside. All the decisions we made are my responsibility. At the same time, we were talking a lot about it, within the technical staff, with my assistant coaches,” he added. “I was talking with Dwight Yorke, as the skipper, about some decisions I had to make.

“If I started with 11 guys, I have 12 guys who don’t start,” Beenhakker said. “And if I changed one of the 11 and one of the 12 who are on the bench comes in, I can make a player (happy) and I have to disappoint another player. So it makes no sense to have this (debate).

“We did what we have to do, let’s be realistic. It was a miracle in relation with last year May when we resumed with the major qualification. It was a miracle that we could play open matches versus Sweden, England and Paraguay where everybody was thinking and only discussing, especially against Sweden and England, are we going to beat Trinidad 6-0, 5-0 or 8-0. I think what I did was the right thing,” he said.

During his four-day visit to Trinidad where he was also given his Chaconia Gold Medal by President George Maxwell Richards, Beenhakker, his successor Wim Rijsbergen, Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) president Oliver Camps and TTFF special advisor Jack Warner met with Prime Minister Patrick Manning to discuss the Government’s involvement with the national team.

“I had the honour of being part of the meeting with the Prime Minister,” said Beenhakker. “It’s a matter of working together, with the Government, with the Football Federation, having qualified coaches and people at the staff. We have to start today with the Under-15 and all the youth teams because they are the future,” he said.