‘All hands have to be on deck’

TT have a tally of three points from four games, in the CONCACAF Zone Final Round, and are rooted to the bottom of the six-team standings, while the US are joint fourth with Honduras with four points.

Mexico are atop the table with 10 points, followed by Costa Rica (seven points) and Panama (five points).

“We definitely need a win (today) to stay in the race,” said La Forest, during a telephone interview yesterday. “To get that win, all hands have to be on deck, all hands, from the coach (Dennis Lawrence) to the masseur. As you rightly know, the whole country have to be behind them. The players have to know that the country is behind them. Shallow, swim, deep, they have to come back here with a victory, no matter what it takes, by all means necessary.” TT are yet to win a World Cup qualifier in the US but La Forest, the ex-Defence Force forward, pointed out, “it’s like the military. You’re going to bomb a base, you have to secure your base. We have some nice experience behind (us) whereby the (defenders) are supposed to hold the back for us. But we also have tonnes of experience going forward. We have people playing in all different types of countries so (they) will have to bring their A-game to give us that victory that we so desire.

We have so many players (based overseas). Everybody have to bring their A-game.” Putting himself in Lawrence’s shoes, what strategy may he employ against the Americans today? “This is a war we’re going to fight,” he stated. “So you have to have strategies for war. Where our strengths are, in terms of the legs going forward, we have quick legs, we have people who can hold up the ball for us.

“In terms of strategy, we can consolidate a bit behind to ensure that things are working out for us but, in the attacking third, we need some quick legs at all time.” A number of TT players are either based in the United States or have experience at club level in the US.

“It’s supposed to work for us because they’re seeing these players week-in, week-out,” said La Forest. “They’re supposed to know these guys strengths and weaknesses. We’re supposed to counteract on that.” He continued, “It’s not like when we used to play and coming up against America, we never used to get a chance to see these players until (the match). These modern-day players have the advantage now in terms of seeing them weekin and week-out. So I think it should work for us, once we put the heads together.” San Jose Earthquakes-based winger Cordell Cato was left out of the team for an alleged breach of team rules. La Forest commented, “in this case, the coach’s decision is final. I’m in the fraternity also. You have players out there who feel they can do things and get away with it. If you happen to let one out of the bag, the rest will look at that and say ‘(the coach) is very soft’. In this case, the coach’s decision is final.”