Trinidad and Tobago national football team

Infobox National football team
Name = Trinidad and Tobago
Badge = Trinidad_FA.gif
FIFA Trigramme = TRI
Nickname = The Soca Warriors
Association = Trinidad and Tobago
Football Federation
Confederation = CONCACAF (North America)
Captain = Aurtis Whitley
Coach = flagicon|COL Francisco Maturana
Most caps = Angus Eve (117)
Top scorer = Stern John (69)
Home Stadium = Hasely Crawford Stadium
FIFA Rank = 88
FIFA max = 25
FIFA max date = June 2001
FIFA min = 102
FIFA min date = July 2008
Elo Rank = T77
Elo max = 35
Elo max date = January 1929
Elo min = 116
Elo min date = September 1987

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First game = )
Largest win =flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago 11 - 0 Aruba flagicon|Aruba
(Grenada; June 4, 1989)
Largest loss =flagicon|Mexico Mexico 7 - 0 Trinidad and Tobago flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago
(Mexico City, Mexico; October 8, 2000)

World cup apps = 1
World cup first = 2006
World cup best = Round 1, 2006
Regional name = CONCACAF Gold Cup
Regional cup apps = 7
Regional cup first = 1991
Regional cup best = 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, such as Dwight Yorke, Carlos Edwards, Kenwyne Jones, Stern John and Shaka Hislop, and reached the first round in the 2006 FIFA World Cup under the management of Leo Beenhakker.

The separate Trinidad and Tobago football teams are not related to the national team and are not directly affiliated with the game's governing bodies of FIFA or CONCACAF but are affiliated with the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation.

Home Ground

The national team plays their home games generally in one of three stadia in the country. Games of significant importance are usually played at the Hasely Crawford Stadium. However, many World Cup qualification matches have been played at the Queen's Park Oval, a multipurpose, but primarily cricket, stadium. Low profile games, such as international friendlies against other islands in the Caribbean, are played at the Marvin Lee Stadium.

FIFA World Cup

1974 World Cup

At the 1973 CONCACAF Championship held in Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago fell two points short of qualifying for the 1974 World Cup Finals hosted by West Germany in controversial fashion. Captained by Selwyn Murren and starring top goalscorer Steve David, T&T lost a crucial game on December 4, 1973 against hosts Haiti 2-1 having five of their goals disallowed. The referee, Jose Enrique of El Salvador and a Canadian linesman James Higuet were subsequently banned for life by FIFA for the dubious circumstances in the match. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2006/jun/03/worldcup2006.sport7 Trinidad and Tobago's Soca Warriors set to give them all in Germany] , Guardian UK. "Accessed 23 June, 2008".] [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20051211/ai_n15918808 Football: Carnival time and the Trinis are up for the party] , The Independent. "Accessed 23 June, 2008".] [ [http://www.socawarriors.net/forum/index.php?topic=15743.msg162330 Trinidad Express - Haitian robbery: T&T cheated W/Cup spot] , Socawarriors.net. "Accessed 23 June, 2008".]

Members of the team also included Everald Cummings, Warren Archibald, Leo Brewster, Raymond Roberts, Sammy Llewellyn, Leroy Spann and Winston Phillips.

1990 World Cup

Trinidad and Tobago came within one game of qualifying for the 1990 FIFA World Cup Finals in Italy. Dubbed the "Strike Squad" during the qualifying campaign, T&T needed only a draw to qualify in their final game played at home against the United States on November 19, 1989. In front of an over capacity crowd of over 30,000 at the National Stadium on "Red Day" [ [http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=CndeofqbjZ0 Red-Day, Nov, 19, 1989] , Youtube.com. "Accessed: June 23, 2008".] , Paul Caligiuri of the USA scored the only goal of the game in the 38th minute dashing T&T's qualification hopes. [ [http://www.guardian.co.tt/archives/2005-11-21/pulse.html Pulse: Thank You T&T Warriors] , Trinidad Guardian. "Accessed 23 June, 2008".] For the good behaviour of the crowd at the stadium despite the devastating loss and overcrowded stands, the spectators of Trinidad and Tobago were awarded the FIFA Fair Play Award in 1989. [ [http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/worldwideprograms/footballforhope/fairplay/awards.html FIFA Fair Play Awards] , FIFA.com. "Accessed 23 June 2008".]

The team was captained by Clayton Morris and coached by Everald Cummings. Members of the Strike Squad included Michael Maurice, Elliot Allen, Russell Latapy, Marlon Morris, Leonson Lewis, Philibert Jones, Dexter Lee, Kerry Jamerson, Maurice Alibey, Marvin Faustin, Brian Williams, Hutson Charles, Dexter Francis and Dwight Yorke. Yorke and Latapy were the only two players from the team that eventually got to play in the World Cup in 2006.

2006 World Cup

Trinidad and Tobago qualified for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals in Germany, its first ever qualification to the tournament. During their qualifying campaign, they sat at the bottom of the table in the Final round of qualifying with one point from three games. But after the arrival of Leo Beenhakker as the team coach and the recalling of veteran players Dwight Yorke and Russell Latapy, Trinidad and Tobago reversed its fortunes and placed 4th in the group. They qualified via a playoff against Bahrain, recovering from a 1-1 draw at home to win 1-0 away from home in Manama to book a place in the finals.

In Germany, T&T was grouped with England, Sweden and Paraguay in group B. They drew their first game 0-0 against Sweden despite going down to 10 men early in the second half. They lost both their remaining games against England and Paraguay by a 2-0 margin.

2010 World Cup Qualification

Trinidad and Tobago will be attempting to qualify for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa following their first ever qualification to the tournament in 2006. They began their campaign in the Second Round with a home and away series against Bermuda. T&T lost the first game at home 1-2 on June 15 but bounced back to win the away leg in Bermuda 2-0 to progress to the Third Round 3-2 on aggregate.

T&T now plays in Group 1 alongside the United States, Guatemala and Cuba. The top two teams from this group will advance the Fourth Round of qualifying with four other teams from other groups. The top three teams then qualify for the World Cup while the fourth placed team enters a home and away playoff against the fifth placed CONMEBOL team for a qualification spot.

Group 1

World Cup record

Source: RSSSF [ [http://www.rsssf.com/miscellaneous/trin-recintlp.html Trinidad and Tobago - Record International Players] , The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, "Accessed 23 June 2008".] and [http://www.socawarriors.net Soca Warriors Online]

Recent Results and Upcoming Fixtures

Below is a table containing the results of recent matches involving the Men's Senior National team and known upcoming fixtures.

Other former managers include flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago Anton Corneal, flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago Ronald La Forest, flagicon|Yugoslavia Zoran Vranes, flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago Everald Cummings, flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago Roderick Warner, flagicon|Netherlands Jan Zwartkruis and flagicon|Trinidad and Tobago Edgar Vidale.

ee also

* Association football in Trinidad and Tobago

References

External links

* [http://www.socawarriorstt.com/ Official Site of the Soca Warriors]
* [http://www.ttffonline.com Official site of Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation]
* [http://www.socawarriors.net/ SocaWarriors.net]
* [http://www.thewarriornation.com The Warrior Nation (Soca Warriors Supporters Club)]