Trinidad and Tobago national football team

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Trinidad and Tobago

Nickname

The Soca Warriors

Association

Trinidad and Tobago
Football Federation

Confederation

CONCACAF (North America)

Head coach

Wim Rijsbergen

Most caps

Angus Eve (118)

Top scorer

Stern John (64)

Home stadium

Hasely Crawford Stadium

FIFA code

TRI

FIFA ranking

Highest FIFA ranking

25 (June 2001)

Lowest FIFA ranking

95 (April 1994)

Elo ranking

Highest Elo ranking

35 (January 1929)

Lowest Elo ranking

116 (September 1987)





First kit





Second kit

First international

Trinidad and Tobago 3 - 3 Dutch Guiana

(Trinidad and Tobago; August 6, 1934)

Biggest win

Trinidad and Tobago 11 - 0 Aruba

(Grenada; June 4, 1989)

Biggest defeat

Mexico 7 - 0 Trinidad and Tobago

(Mexico City, Mexico; October 8, 2000)

World Cup

Appearances

1 (First in 2006)

Best result

Round 1, 2006

CONCACAF Gold Cup

Appearances

6 (First in 1991)

Best result

Semifinals, 2000

The Trinidad and Tobago national football team, nicknamed The Soca Warriors, is the national team of Trinidad and Tobago and is controlled by the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation. The country has produced several Premiership players, like Dwight Yorke, Stern John and Shaka Hislop, and qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup under the management of Leo Beenhakker.

1 History
2 World Cup record
3 Gold Cup record
4 Notable Players
5 2006 World Cup squad
- 5.1 2006 World Cup information
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] History

Usually considered one of the best teams in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago has won the Caribbean Cup eight times and is one of four Caribbean countries to ever qualify for the FIFA World Cup. During the 1974 World Cup qualification the team came within one point of qualifying for the World Cup in place of Haiti. The Soca warriors managed to inflict Mexico's only loss during the tournament(4-0). Trinidad made another run in the 1990 World Cup qualifying once again coming within one point. Trinidad won their semifinals group in 2002 in a group that included Mexico and Canada however came in last winning only one game in the final round.

Trinidad and Tobago played Demerara and Barbados for the Martinez Shield between 1923 and 1933. Technically, their first ever match was a 1-1 draw against Demerara, but no exact record and no exact dates for those matches exist.

On October 12, 2005, Trinidad and Tobago beat Mexico 2-1, with a brace of goals from Stern John. This win allowed them to finish in 4th place in the CONCACAF final qualification round, and therefore participated in a playoff with the fifth place Asian team Bahrain for a chance to enter the 2006 World Cup. After a 1-1 draw in Port of Spain, the team beat Bahrain 1-0 (with a Dennis Lawrence header) in Manama to clinch their first ever qualification for the World Cup, becoming the smallest nation ever to qualify for the World Cup finals. ^[1]

Their group for the World Cup was group B, which also contained Sweden, England and Paraguay. The underdogs drew 0-0 with Sweden in their first ever match at a World Cup. However they lost by two goals against both England and Paraguay.

On 6 October 2006 thirteen of the players in the 2006 World Cup squad indicated their intention to retire from international football after the friendly matches against St Vincent and the Grenadines on 7 October and Panama on 11 October because they alleged that the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation had reneged on various contractual commitments to the team. This is viewed as a negotiating position. ^[2]

On 6 March 2007, the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation announced it had been forced to suspend activity related to all national teams except the U-17 boys' team, which was attempting to qualify for the 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup. The federation announced it might be forced to withdraw its senior men's national team from the 2007 CONCACAF Gold Cup, although it was drawn in the tournament the same day. ^[3]

[edit] World Cup record

1930 to 1962 - Did not enter
1966 to 2002 - Did not qualify
2006 - Round 1

[edit] Gold Cup record

1991 - Round 1
1993 - Did not qualify
1996 - Round 1
1998 - Round 1
2000 - Semifinals
2002 - Round 1
2003 - Did not qualify
2005 - Round 1
2007 - Qualified

[edit] Notable Players

[edit] 2006 World Cup squad

Head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago 2006 World Cup squad was Leo Beenhakker

No.	Pos.	Player	DoB/Age	Caps	Club
1	GK	Shaka Hislop	22 February 1969	26	West Ham United
2	DF	Ian Cox	25 March 1971	16	Gillingham
3	DF	Avery John	18 June 1975	58	New England Revolution
4	DF	Marvin Andrews	22 December 1975	98	Rangers FC
5	DF	Brent Sancho	13 March 1977	42	Gillingham
6	DF	Dennis Lawrence	1 August 1974	65	Wrexham
7	MF	Christopher Birchall	5 May 1984	21	Port Vale
8	DF	Cyd Gray	21 November 1976	41	San Juan Jabloteh
9	MF	Aurtis Whitley	1 May 1977	26	San Juan Jabloteh
10	FW	Russell Latapy	2 August 1968	66	Falkirk F.C.
11	MF	Carlos Edwards	24 October 1978	53	Luton Town
12	FW	Collin Samuel	27 August 1981	19	Dundee United
13	FW	Cornell Glen	21 October 1980	37	Los Angeles Galaxy
14	FW	Stern John	30 October 1976	97	Coventry City
15	FW	Kenwyne Jones	5 October 1984	30	Southampton F.C.
16	MF	Evans Wise	23 November 1973	17	Waldhof Mannheim
17	DF	Atiba Charles	29 September 1977	19	W Connection
18	MF	Densill Theobald	27 June 1982	40	Falkirk F.C.
19	FW	Dwight Yorke (c)	3 November 1971	56	Sydney FC
20	FW	Jason Scotland	18 February 1979	25	St Johnstone
21	GK	Kelvin Jack	29 April 1976	32	Dundee FC
22	GK	Clayton Ince	13 July 1972	63	Coventry City
23	MF	Anthony Wolfe	23 December 1983	4	San Juan Jabloteh

Silvio Spann was originally in the squad, but had to drop-out after sustaining a hamstring injury in the run-up to the tournament. He was replaced by Evans Wise [1].

[edit] 2006 World Cup information

Many supporters of Scottish football lent their support to Trinidad and Tobago, partly because they were opponents to England and in part because six of the squad members played for Scottish clubs.^{[citations needed]} Also many Scottish fans supported the Trinidad and Tobago player Jason Scotland (One of the players who plays in Scotland, for St. Johnstone and before that, Dundee United, who he left after being denied a work permit).^{[citations needed]}

Trinidad and Tobago had a good start in the 2006 FIFA World Cup, holding a very strong Swedish side to a 0-0 draw. Another factor that made this achievement more remarkable is that Trinidad and Tobago had Avery John sent off less than 30 seconds into the second half, and had to survive the remainder of the match with 10 men. Captain Dwight Yorke won Man of the Match honors.

Trinidad and Tobago lost their second game of group B to England 2-0. Late goals from Peter Crouch and Steven Gerrard secured England a place in the second round. Trinidad had hoped for a draw between Paraguay and Sweden for their best chances of getting second place but Sweden defeated Paraguay 1-0.

Trinidad and Tobago lost their third and final game of group B to Paraguay 2-0. An own goal by Brent Sancho put them behind early in the game, and Paraguay scored a second goal late in the game from Nelson Cuevas. Trinidad and Tobago finished last in group B with 1 point, and were eliminated from the 2006 World Cup. They were the only team in this World Cup not to score a goal.

On their return from Germany, the government awarded Leo Beenhakker and each member of the squad the country's second highest honour, the Chaconia Medal, Gold, plus TT$1,000,000 (one quarter in cash, the rest in unit trusts). As captain, Dwight Yorke was awarded TT$1,250,000, while players who had participated in qualification but not in Germany were awarded TT$250,000. Ten members of the teams' technical staff were also later awarded TT$250,000. [2]. There was, however, dispute over the sums due [3] and a number of players threatened to retire from the national team over the matter, Brent Sancho doing so.