April News

Talk about moving up in value. Former national captain Russell Latapy has moved up in value according to the Trinidad Guardian.  In order for any club to have him on there team they must shell out £7,000.000 for a transfer from his current club Boavista. Several European clubs have come knocking on the door of Russell. According to the report, Arsenal and Leeds United in England have shown interest in him. Last month Russell Latapy was in England to discuss a possible move to Leeds. In addition to English clubs, Nantes and Monoco in France and Benfica in Portugal have expressed interest. Two Brazilian clubs have also shown interest in him as well. Palmeiras is rumoured to be one of the clubs. Last season Aston Villa tried to acquire Russell for £6,000,000. However, Boavista turned down the deal and decided to keep him for one more year. Despite the price for Latapy he is still number two in value behind Dwight Yorke. Yorke's value is rated at £10,000,000.

Over in England, Dwight Yorke and Aston Villa will be looking to get there UEFA cup hopes back on track when they play Sheffield Wednesday. Clint Marcelle and Barnsley are just playing out there season and this may be the weekend when they get officially relegated. They face Leicester City on the road.

Over in Scotland, Anthony Rougier and Hibernian face Dundee United. Marvin Andrews is probable with an abdominal strain. Raith take on Airdire. In Portugal, Russell Latapy and Boavista face E.Amadora in a attempt to gain a UEFA cup place next year. Leonson Lewis and Chaves face Campomaiorense  at home.

Tuesday April 28th, 1998

David Nahkid is angry at not being called up for T&T's game with Saudi Arabia. Speaking to the Independent last week Nahkid said: "Nobody ever told me about this match, they did not even have the courtesy to ask me if I was available or not." Nahkid has been captain of Trinidad and Tobago since he took over from Russell Latapy 18 months ago. T&T is due to play Saudi Arabia on May 9th in Nice, France. Also not in the squad is Russell Latapy.

After coming off a great performance last week you would have to excuse Stern John this week. Once again he found the back of the net. John scored his fourth goal of the season in the fourth minute. He ripped a low shot past the DC United goalkeeper to put Columbus up until an 89th minute goal by Ethervery level the game. The two teams preceded to shot outs in which DC emerged victorious. It was only the second lost for the Crew this season. They still remain in first place in the MLS East division.

Dwight Yorke's ability to play in the UEFA cup next year suffered a big setback on Saturday. They lost to relegation favorites Bolton Wanderers 3-1. That lost droped Villa to eighth place and practically out of UEFA cup contention. They need to get into the top five positions for a chance.
 

SPFL update tommorow.

Trinidad and Tobago has broken into the top fifty in the latest Fifa rankings. They are currently ranked 49th in the World between Cameroon (48th) and Costa Rica (50th). They moved up two places since the ranking last month. T&T are still benefiting from the Gold Cup and some shaking up in the higher teams. Trinidad and Tobago is ranked fourth in Concacaf behind Mexico (4th), the United States (15th)  and Jamaica (31st) all World Cup qualifiers.

After the friendly, the team will go to St. Kitts and Nevis for the Bolton Wanderers tournament. None of the European players will not be included in the squad and will be replaced with a local contingent. Only Gary Glasgow from the New Orleans Storm will be in the lineup during the tournament.  The friendly with Saudi Arabia will give a good look at the future T&T team. Bertile St. Clair wants to give as much international exposure to young players and incorporate them with the European players.

Across the Atlantic,  Stern John is coming off his three goal performance last weekend. John and his cousin Elcock travel to Washington, D.C to take on MLS champs DC United in MLS action. Viewers in the US can see the game on any Univision station in your local area at 3pm EST. You can see the game live here on the internet. This is a first for TTFOL. KMEX in Los Angeles will be carrying the game on their network and streaming it live over the internet. The game will be in Spanish, so it may be difficult for those of you like me who flunked out of Form Three Spanish to follow along. However, as my friend Gary says, football is football in any language. Also it may be choppy and prone to breakdowns, it depends on your system and how busy the net is at that time. After all that you can go to Stadium at 3pm EST on Sunday. I have also included the Telemundo television station for more coverage later on in the year.

In other MLS action, David Nahkid and Evans Wise will be looking for more points when they face Miami. Finally, Brian Haynes and Mickey Trotman will be looking for more playing time when Dallas face Kansas City.

A youthful Trinidad and Tobago fell to Mexican club champions Guadalajara on Friday night 0-1. Bertile St. Clair called up 19 players of which 14 had no international experience. Trinidad and Tobago dominated the game but fell to a 81st minute goal keeper blunder.

After throwing away two good chances, the Mexicans swooped down via a counter attack. Ignacio Vázquez received a long past from another team mate and headed straight towards the goal. However, Micheal McComie immediately came off his line to challenge the striker who chipped the ball over his head into an open net.

T&T for there part should have won the game by a healthy margin. In the 77th minute Anton Brown fired a shot just inches over the crossbar after some bad defensive work by the Mexican defenders. Irasta Knights fired a left footed shot that was wide of the mark in the 73rd minute.

St. Clair's inclusion of 14 uncapped players including several under 23 players is in keeping with his philosophy of rebuilding. This year is going to be a very good year for St. Clair in evaluating young talent. He has the CAC Under 21 tournament in a couple of months. He also has the Under 20 qualifying tournament later this year. It is St. Clair's wish to merge the existing professionals together with the skillful young players into a force to reckon with.

"Down de road" from Columbus in Cincinnati they were talking about another T&T trio. Gary Glasgow scored two goals and Lester Felician another in New Orlean's 3-1 win over the Riverhawks in A-League action. Glasgow scored in the 13th minute when he received a past from fellow T&T national Glenn Benjamin and dribbled past the defenders to put in a hook shot past the goalie. Glasgow found himself unmarked and on a receiving past from a team mate. He buried the shot past the goalie for his second goal of the game. Less than one minute later Lester Felcian scored on a Glenn Benjamin assist. New Orleans improve to 2-1 on the season.

Sadly for Nahkid he suffered a knock near the end of the first half and was subbed early in the second half. That left New England without there main  midfield threat. The slack was picked up by Evans Wise.

However, Wise is no Nahkid. Despite making good runs on the wings, his final crosses into the penalty area were usually ineffective. He did provide a cross in the first half deep into the penalty box that eventually provided New England with the game tying score. Wise used most of his speed to get past DC defenders but his final touch just lacked what was required to make a true difference. It was like watching Machel Montano and Xtatic on t.v with the volume off, lots of excitement but nothing to move you. New England won the game 2-1 on a shoot out after remaining tied 1-1 at the end of regulation time. That gave New England there first points of the season.
 

Dwight Yorke continued his good run of form of late for Aston Villa. He scored his 14th goal of the season in a 2-1 win over Southampton. Yorke's goal came from a cross from Ian Wright and knocked home the go ahead goal for Villa. Yorke had a chance to add to his total less than one minute later when he struck the up right. Yorke put away another near the end of the game but was judged to have fouled the goal keeper first. The win for Villa keeps them in eighth spot with 51 points, just outside of a European place.

Leonson Lewis started for Chaves in there encouter with league leaders FC Porto. However, they fell 3-1 to remain second to last in the Portuguise First division.

However, according to a Trinidad Express report on Monday, the deal has fallen on the rocks. Francisco has returned to Portugal and may be working towards other deals with other clubs. According to Rangers manager Richard Fakoory "The original arrangement was that he (Francisco) would be a part financier of the club. But he wanted more than that. He wanted to have complete autonomy for the club and I couldn't give him that...He may also be talking to other clubs but I can do nothing about that. Right now I can only hope that when he returns we will be able to come to a settlement, if not I will have to do it with my own resources."

While the arrangement seems like it is on the the death bed, all is not lost. The deal is one of the most forward thinking steps for T&T football. The poitential benefits for the game in Trinidad and Tobago would have been tremendous. It would have meant that Rangers top players would have gain the experience of playing in Europe with some powerful European teams. The other clubs in the SPFL should take a page from this idea and link with clubs outside T&T. Not as a matter of survival but as a way to expand and improve the game in the country. A team link with smaller teams in South America and Europe would only help the game. Lets be honest you are not going to see a link between Joe Public with Juventus. However, maybe Joe Public or Caledonia with Vincenza in Italy or Deportiva La Corunia in Spain will look good. Just something to think about.

Eventhough Russell Latapy looks almost certain to leave Boavista at seasons end, in the event that he should be staying at the Portuguise club he will have a good chance of playing in Europe. Latapy has been no stranger to European competition. Playing in Champions League with FC Porto and both Cup Winners Cup and UEFA cup competition with Boavista has taken him from Italy to the Ukraine. This year Boavista are in the hunt for a UEFA cup place. They are currently in third and must maintain that place in order to play in Europe.

Strange but through, Jerren Nixon and FC Zurich are looking good for a European place. Every year it seems that FC Zurich's main aim is to reach the championship zone and play out the rest of the season. However, this year has been different. They have found themselves among the top teams in Switzerland. Following a 3-2 win over FC Aarau on Wednesday night, the club has moved up within the top three and just four points behind the second place team.

Brian Haynes and the Dallas Burn won there third game in a row by beating San Jose 3-2 in a shoot out. Haynes came on in the 75th minute in a 2-1 Dallas game. However, a San Jose goal seven minutes from time forced extra time and then a shoot out to determine the winner.

Both David Nahkid and Evans Wise started for New England in there game with Miami. However, they lost 2-1 to remain winless in just there second game of the MLS season.

Finally a little house keeping. I have included two new pieces of video of Dwight Yorke's two goal performance last week. Scroll down to March 30th news segment for the video.

In Scotland, despite the menace of Tony Rougier Hibernian still went down to Glasgow Rangers 3-0. Rougier seemed to be the only threat for the Easter Road boys. Just three minutes before the end of the first half he blew past a Rangers defender who just managed to grad a piece of his shirt and pull him down. He then found himself body checked by another Rangers defender. That seemed to be the only action that Hibs would see on the night. They still remain last in the Scottish Premiership.

Craig Demmin who used to play for the Chargers has moved to Rochester a very big football town in upstate New York. His younger brother Dwayne Demmin has recently returned from a  trial in Malaysia and may soon resurface in the A-league. In addition, Marvin Raeburn and Avery John will be playing in the A-league this year with the Raleigh Flyers coached by Alvin Corneal. However, the news is not so good for Alvin Boisson and Peter Lewis. According to Charleston management the two have been released.

On another note, Alvin Corneal has agreed to write a monthly column for Trinidad and Tobago Football Online on his views on football in Trinidad and Tobago and around the World. I hope you will further enjoy the site.

The idea of the merger is heavily supported by big Mexican clubs who would enjoy greater revenue if the two Confederations would merge. Also supporting the idea is CSF President Nicolas Leoz. With the merger comes three additional World Cup spots and greater revenue if more South American countries qualify for subsequent World Cup tournaments. However, according to Warner the idea has only generated a luke warm response from the United States. Leoz speaking to ESPN stated: "We have interpreted the wish of United States and Mexican football  to be close to us...We have always believed that the CSF and CONCACAF should unite to become a single force at world level. I don't believe that anybody could be against an approximation of the federations, for this reason it appears to me that there is no obstacle from any candidate or any president. Obviously, there is a long way to go to define this idea but the main thing is that the will exists among the counties involved." He made those comments at the launching of a tournament called the Copa Merconte in which clubs from Mexico, the United States and five other South American countries will compete.

The Mexican Football Federation has thrown it's weight behind the idea. However, if one is to look at who runs the MFF it will reveal that the big clubs like Guadalajara have there say in what organization does. What ever the big clubs want they get. If you have any doubt check out what happened Mexico's former head coach in Bora Militovic when he went head to head with the top club's presidents.  If  I was a betting man ( I don't bet anymore since I lost $200 on the Tyson-Hollyfield fight two years ago) I would put money on Warner. I say there is no way that Jack Warner sells out Concacaf like a two dollar prostitute. One friend remarked to me that since the MFF wants a merger, Jack Warner should use all his power to get Mexico and Venezuela to switch confederations. I fully support that idea.

Both Evans Wise and David Nahkid started for New England in there season opener with MLS champs DC United. Wise created some problems for the United defense when his crossed was miffed by his teammate but fell nicely to another who buried the shot past the goalie. However, in the 88th minute DC United tied the game and forced it to sudden death overtime. After nothing was decided in the extra period a shootout took place. Wise had his shot in the shootout saved and the Rev went down 2-1.

What do you think of the merger plans? Leave a measage.