Trinidad and Tobago national football team

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.

Usually considered one of the best teams in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago has won the Caribbean Cup eight times and is one of three 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 to 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.

Their group for the World Cup was group B, which also contained Sweden, England and Paraguay. The under-dogs drew 0-0 with Sweden in their first ever match at a World Cup.

World Cup record

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

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

Notable Players

2006 World Cup Squad

Head coach: Leo Beenhakker

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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 ^*.

2006 World Cup Information

Many supporters of Scottish football have lent their support to Trinidad and Tobago, partly because they were opponents to England, partly because of the name of striker Jason Scotland, and in part because six of the squad members play for Scottish clubs.

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 down early, 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 and Tobago dollar|TT$" target="_blank" >^*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. ^*

Footnotes

External links

Football in Trinidad and Tobago | North American national football teams