Awful! Hart says many Warriors didn’t deserve national colours

Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Team head coach Stephen Hart blasted his team’s performance as awful today after a 3-0 loss away to Jordan, which equalled his heaviest defeat as “Soca Warriors” coach.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago national senior team coach Stephen Hart studies his options during a 3-0 friendly defeat against Argentina in June 2014. The Warriors lost 3-0 again today against Jordan. (Courtesy CONCACAF)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago national senior team coach Stephen Hart studies his options during a 3-0 friendly defeat against Argentina in June 2014.
The Warriors lost 3-0 again today against Jordan.
(Courtesy CONCACAF)

The Warriors lost 3-0 to a Lionel Messi-led Argentina team on 4 June 2014 at Buenos Aires.

Hart’s troops have now lost all three warm-up games before the July CONCACAF Gold Cup.

“It was extremely disappointing today,” Hart told the TTFA Media. “We were second best, even third best today. We were awful.”

Hart took over the reins of the local senior team in June 2013 and recorded nine wins, four draws and eight losses from his 21 outings in charge. But the former Canada head coach found today’s outing the hardest to swallow as he broke from tradition to criticise his squad.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago head coach Stephen Hart makes a point during a training session in Sao Paulo last year. (Courtesy Allan V Crane/TTFA Media)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago head coach Stephen Hart makes a point during a training session in Sao Paulo last year.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/TTFA Media)

“I think what hurt most is that there were a number players out there playing for selection for a national team,” he said, “and quite frankly they didn’t deserve to wear a national shirt today. They showed no fight, no desire, no passion and it makes me think what the selection should be for the Gold Cup.

“I don’t want to make any excuses, long flight and some of the players felt a bit legless in the opening minutes but at the end of the day you still have to play the game.”

Hart praised team captain and Cardiff City forward Kenwyne Jones for his work ethic while he also complimented San Jose Earthquakes winger Cordell Cato and substitute Willis Plaza.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago forward Willis Plaza (left) tries to keep the ball from Panama captain Roman Torres at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva. (Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago forward Willis Plaza (left) tries to keep the ball from Panama captain Roman Torres at the Ato Boldon Stadium, Couva.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)

“(Cato) started off slow like nearly everybody else but he came into his own today,” said the Warriors coach. “Kenwyne ran his socks off, even though he couldn’t get the shots off that I would have liked. And even (Willis) Plaza came on and played with a lot of passion and desire.

“But both individually and collectively, we were poor.”

The Warriors are expected to reassemble on Monday for a live-in camp in Port of Spain before they head to Fort Lauderdale in early July. Hart said fitness will be the main priority between now and their July 9 Gold Cup opener against Guatemala in Chicago.

“There are a lot of things that need rectifying once we go into camp,” said Hart. “The main priority right now is fitness… We are no where close to international fitness…


“I know what we need to do, what we need to work on and what the priorities are. The first thing on my part is the players selection and getting some sort of balance once we go into the camp.

Photo: Trinidad and Tobago head coach Stephen Hart (centre) makes a point while midfielders Ataulla Guerra (right) and Khaleem Hyland look on during a practice session in March. (Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)
Photo: Trinidad and Tobago head coach Stephen Hart (centre) makes a point while midfielders Ataulla Guerra (right) and Khaleem Hyland look on during a practice session in March.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)

“We need a situation where we are training twice or three times a day. We need that kind of environment now.

“If you’re not in that environment and you’re training once a day then it’s not good, amateurs train once a day and we have a lot of work to do before the Gold Cup.”

More from Wired868
Corneal: Talent was not the issue! TD discusses T&T’s shortlived Concacaf U-20 adventure

“[…] We saw an array of talent across the board and not with just 20 players. I’ve said it before Read more

Eve: “We acquitted ourselves well!” Dour Soca Warriors eliminated 2-0 by Canada

The Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team’s bid for an unprecedented place in the Copa America tournament stalled this Read more

Eve accepts underdog tag, wants Warriors to represent T&T’s crime victims

Angus Eve, coach of the Trinidad and Tobago men’s football team, accepts that his squad will be the underdogs against Read more

“David vs Goliath!” Eve speaks on Canada’s Copa challenge and his 23-man squad

Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team head coach Angus Eve hopes an organised defence will give his team the Read more

Eve names Levi in 23-man squad to face Canada; Telfer, Muckette out

Trinidad and Tobago Men’s National Senior Team head coach Angus Eve announced his 23-man squad to face Canada in next Read more

T&T and Jamaica finish goalless, Denzil and “Natty” shine

Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica played to a goalless draw at the Larry Gomes Stadium today, in the second and Read more

About Editor

Check Also

Corneal: Talent was not the issue! TD discusses T&T’s shortlived Concacaf U-20 adventure

“[…] We saw an array of talent across the board and not with just 20 …

95 comments

  1. Yo Hart needs to fire his self and give me his job I would get the team winning games and making t and t proud

  2. Ridiculous excuses works no where else but Trindad and Tobago other coaches is sacked for these results he has resources he isn’t using them to the best of his ability .

  3. Well said Adrian Romain……. Unattached players, players playing in sub par leagues, unfit players…..

  4. I am a great supporter of Stephan Hart but for the past 4Games I have questioned his team selection .Hashim Arcia,jerrel Britto ,Cornell glen have all been overlooked with tremendous performances under there belt he is still picking players unattached which queries his team selection policy ,worst yet he comes out public stating that some players didn’t deserve to wear national colors before that team left for The Middle East he could have seen that there is no way you pick a squad as a coach and regret it knowing that you have had ample time to handpick what you have available to you so these excuses don’t work the Gold Cup squad isn’t any better so I await his squad .

  5. We are amateurs… at everything ..

    Amateurs practice until they get it right. Professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong …

  6. RTK has scored a major goal for T&T! Team also did really well by doing crap! We’ll see how it all pans out by December.

  7. I find it passing strange that Hart only discovered that after the game. Wasn’t he aware of that during the selection process. We keep sending amateurs to do the job of professionals and then wonder why they perform so poorly, same can of peas with West Indies cricket.

  8. TTFA in Trinidad needs a haul..bush bath..bull pistle…not necessarily in that order..

  9. Well said Mr. Hart…maybe this is the turn around we need…training 3 times a day should be par for the course for any full time profession sportsman.

  10. I feel for Hart he has sacrificed a lot to come here, not get paid for months, not get friendly matches he requested and now try to Coach a bunch of unmotivated players…we are lucky he’s stayed this long! Truly a Patriot! To the posters above who are blaming HIM for yesterday’s debacle I wonder how many of the team’s games you watched prior. His FIRST job asT&T Coach was to take a team he inherited not chose and get us to equal our highest ever placing in this same Gold Cup…I wish him well over the next few weeks and pressure needs to applied to the TTFA to get the team a few more friendlies to help get the team back on track.

  11. Cant you see that the guys are protesting for better wages its just a plot read between the línes hart

  12. Like I said, you can take the horse to the water but you can’t make it bathe! I also said that T&T is an uncoachable team but is a top ten team in the world with that firepower. It isn’t any surprise to me that Hart’s team flat lined. Please Mr. Live, set up a 20 min meeting with Coach Hart and I will be glad to share the information.

  13. It’s not just the players, it’s a general attitude that pervades the country.

  14. The problem i believe is accountability! No one in sports on a whole feels accountable to anyone. So teams travel all over… ‘do their thing’, and just come back home. So it’s “TRAIN-DEFEAT-REAPEAT!” Then of course there are the superficial analyses of what went wrong, and what needs to be done.
    If you are spending taxpayers money and you want the taxpayers support , then you need to be accountable to the taxpayers. So! What are your plans for our national teams? Where can i find it? Is it on-line? What are the criteria that you use to select these teams? Where can i find that? As far as preparation , where can i find out how a team is progressing towards its target?
    Instead, every national team coach and staff is an island unto themselves; and then they expect me to even care about what their results are? Sorry! NOT ME! I not following no team that spending my money, but not willing to show any form of accountability.
    Sports is TEAM, and i am part and parcel of ‘the team!’ They call me a STAKEHOLDER, and until i feel like a stakeholder, ‘me eh care!’ how much licks alyuh get; that goes for all national teams in every sporting discipline. I not getting value for ‘mih’ taxpayers dollars! As a matter of fact ‘alyuh’ wasting good money on all ‘dem’ conventional sports …. Maybe it’s time to put more money into non-conventional sports like jUMP ROPE (heavy bias) and CHEERLEADING.

  15. The problems with our national football teams are deep rooted but it can be solved. I guess we all have been talking about solving our footballing problems for decades.. 2006 was a smokescreen people.. It was a group of experienced players around the peaks.. We all played at a decent level in Europe.. And we still went through a play off; just. Those entrusted with improving this ship needs serious guidance and they must be humble enough to take that advice from knowledgable people.

  16. No blasted discipline or commitment has always been our downfall. And when the Coach calla a spade a spade he getting lash. SMH.

  17. I just don’t think we take sport seriously in tnt …

  18. Just the same for the West Indies Cricketers. Many of them don’t deserve the maroons.

  19. We still coasting on it being a pips to be on the national team rather than take it seriously ? Have we learned from the Strike Squad till now ? I feel as though these teams put in 89 percent and then expect to reach the 100 mark on game day… I mean TTFA seems to be like the Smoke Monster on Lost .. straight bullshit … but there every season till the end.

  20. Best we had stayed right in the Caribbean to get that kind of licks yes

  21. Correct me if I am wrong Ian R Briggs. But usually when a coach says his players didn’t deserve to wear the shirt… Usually that is an end of days statement.
    Coaches tend not to last too long after such an admonishment usually.

  22. We paid to get to London and Jordan picked up the tab for the rest.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.