We must out think our opponents

THE EDITOR: Ha! Goal! After only 30 seconds into the match! What is deese? (to take an expression from our former calypso monarch, Denyse Plummer). Common fellas, the game starts when the referee blows the whistle. There is no honeymoon period allowed to settle in. Were the national footballers not prepared prior to the game? Isn’t there a team psychologist? Wasn’t our players psyched up before the game? Why did they appear so shell shocked and disinterested? It is time those responsible wake up from their slumber and smell the coffee. Today’s sport calls for vision, tactics and strategy. Out thinking opponents is critical in order to outplay them. We had the same number of players on the field as the Mexican, and our guys were bigger, stronger, equally if not better skilled, and at times even faster than our opponents, and yet we were outplayed.

Was this not the same Mexican team which participated in the just concluded Olympic Games? Were there not tapes of how this team played, or did we not have scouts looking at their preparatory games? It seems to me that we simply took to the field of play and hoped for the best, hoping the Mexicans would spare us as Hurricane Ivan had only hours before. We need to work on the mindset of our sportsmen, and let us shake off any inferiority complex we have when it comes to playing matches against countries like Mexico and the USA. Thankfully there is still time to iron out our shortcomings and get back on the road to Germany. Let us learn from past mistakes and avoid the embarassment of our campaign four years ago when we were under the helm of Poterfield and Simoes. Mr St Clair, this is not schoolboy intercol football, this is it. The ball in in your hands (or at your feet). Let’s get to Germany. Good Luck!

DR MICHAEL
JAGGERNAUTH
Couva