Warrior Chief Says: We’re Not Winning This World Cup

Every Sunday I devote an hour or two to the leisurely perusal of the weekend newspapers, prepping for the Warriors Week in Review or looking for leads that I’d follow up during the week ahead. Today I found a stunner: Leo Beenhakker joined the global chorus and said, “don’t be silly, the Warriors aren’t going to win the World Cup.”

Well, no, obviously. That’s the pragmatic me speaking, whereas the hardcore Warrior groupie is vehemently protesting, “oh come on! Senegal beat France!”

For the moment, logic will trump optimism. Admittedly, when we’re one goal up against Sweden, I am sure that I will join the millions of Warrior Nation members around the word in making mouthy predictions about trophies and eternal glory.

My own football-induced schizophrenia aside, one has to ask: is it appropriate for a coach to display such ruthless pragmatism? Shouldn’t Beenie be emulating Wenger and constantly affirming that anything is possible?

Hmm.

Beenie has said often and rightly that the Warriors are going to Germany to play the best football of which we are capable and as Kelvin Jack recently declared, “we’re not going out there to lose all our matches 5-0.” He didn’t say that we were going out there to win.

The implicit message in all of this is that the Warriors might be a world class team, but we’re not yet world beaters. And? I’m old school. The World Cup isn’t just about the trophy. It’s about being there. It’s about 11 players representing all that is good about their country. It’s about beautiful football - joga bonito, baby.

And Beenhakker? Here’s what he said:

“[Can we win the World Cup?] No, that’s silly. We know exactly where we are. We have both feet very well on the ground. You have to realise that in inhabitants, we are much smaller than Paris. I can assure you that in inhabitants we are 1.2 million but we will defend ourselves. We know what we have to do. We know the possibility of the team. We know that we have to play three very, very tough opponents, so that it will not be easy.”

Knowing Trinbagonians, there’s likely to be a backlash. There will be mutterings that Beenie is being disloyal, that (worse) he’s not leaving room for “big dreams.”

I’m going on the record as saying that I disagree. I have the utmost respect for Leo Beenhakker, the man who brought us from the brink of elimination to World Cup qualification. He is an experienced and talented coach, but our Warrior Chief is not a shaman. Nor is he in any way disloyal to his charges:

“The only guarantee I can give you is that we will have a perfect preparation to bring the guys in perfect condition for the first match. They will play with courage. They will play with personality and they will play with pride to defend the colours of their country.”

We might advance to the second round, or we might not. Let’s throw caution and reason to the wind and argue that that’s we’ll reach the finals against Brazil. Or not. Whatever happens, we will play with courage, with personality and with pride.

Remember - we are the Soca Warriors. Win or lose, we are fighters.