Whither the Warriors?

ON JUNE 22, the Soca Warriors team will face Saudi Arabia in their final Group D match against Saudi Arabia. The result of this match will decide whether the team will find a place in the knockout round of the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup tournament, but the team will take the field in cellar position, with just one point from its match against Haiti.

That point was earned against a team that played for 50 minutes with a man down – lost to a red card – and even so, the match proved a struggle.

Haiti has traditionally been a hard game for Trinidad and Tobago. This country lost its last three matches against Haiti.

The 1-1 draw with Haiti followed a 5-0 rout in the match against the US in a game that featured fewer than half of the US team's top tier players.

In the upcoming match against Saudi Arabia, TT will again face a team that won't be fielding its best, but won't be willing to concede any points at this stage of qualification.

The Soca Warriors have been working hard toward this goal, having played in the Unity Cup and the second round of the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers over the last three weeks, and that's put the team under almost continuous pressure.

It's been a particularly hard week for the team, getting crushed by the US on June 15 then fighting for the Haiti draw on June 19.

Head coach Dwight Yorke has sensibly placed an emphasis on getting his team mentally prepared for their games, but that's only part of the mix that makes a team successful.

By all reasonable evaluations, the Warriors are still to find a cohesive plan of co-ordinated action on the field. Attacks are too readily stymied, often by ineffective passing and our defence is demonstrably porous.

The local team can't depend on the skills of new players like Tyrese Spicer and Levi Garcia to compensate for basic failures to possess the ball and strike to goal.

That hard tackle on Mr Garcia by Haiti in the 39th minute seemed to target that weakness.

Effective strategy at pace demands players who can grasp what's happening on the field and adapt locker room strategy to turf war reality as a cohesive unit.

From the opening whistle today, TT's team must operate with a clear understanding that whatever strategy they hope to execute on the field, the Saudi team will have studied their past performance and have their own plan to win.

The head coach has hinted at plans to bolster the team's fragile backline and to reinforce its capabilities, but the team we have today is the one that must exploit the slim opportunity that remains for a Gold Cup qualification.