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Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Team coach Stephen Hart has cut playmaker Kevin Molino from his squad for breaking camp, barely a month since the Orlando City player incurred a massive fine for the same infraction.
Hart’s decision means the Warriors face Martinique in Fort-de-France tonight—in a must-win Caribbean Cup qualifier—without his most lethal finisher. Team captain and forward Kenwyne Jones is Hart’s top scorer after 16 items—inclusive of four penalty kicks—from 32 items. But Molino plundered his 13 goals in just 15 starts and three substitute appearances for the Warriors.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)
Last Wednesday, Hart lauded the clever Number 10, after he showed signs of returning to his best with a hattrick in a 4-0 demolition of the Dominican Republic at the Ato Boldon Stadium in Couva.
Two days later, Molino allegedly decided to celebrate by slipping out of the team base and spending the night at the Vas Lounge nightclub in St Clair.
Hart, according to informed sources, found out about Molino’s indiscretion on Monday—a day after the team landed in Fort-De-France. And this time, there is unlikely to be a second chance.
Wired868 was told that Molino was immediately cut from the squad for the Martinique showdown. The winner of tonight’s contest advances automatically to the 2017 Caribbean Cup semifinals and CONCACAF Gold Cup while the loser, although eliminated from the Caribbean Cup, will attempt to get to the Gold Cup through a series of play-offs.
Crucially, Molino’s indiscretion looks likely to cost the playmaker his place in the squad when Trinidad and Tobago host Costa Rica on 11 November and then face Honduras away on 15 November in the opening two Hex assignments for their final Russia 2018 World Cup qualifying round.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)
On Tuesday 30 August, three days before the Warriors hosted Guatemala in a key World Cup qualifier, Molino, Joevin Jones and Mekeil Williams broke camp and attended a boat party.
All three were fined although Hart allowed them to play on 2 September when the Warriors held Guatemala 2-2 at the Hasely Crawford Stadium in Port of Spain—with Joevin scoring both goals.
“It was a first time situation as far as I know,” Hart told Wired868 at the time, “and you have to ask yourself: Do you punish the whole team for a situation of three players?
“You are going into a crucial game and the players have broken team rules. We thought we dealt with it sufficiently in terms of it being a fine and [handling] it in-house.
“If this was habitual, they would probably have been sent home.”
Molino expressed his regret to Hart immediately after the incident while he said sorry to the public at a post-game conference on 5 October in Couva.
(Courtesy Nicholas Bhajan/Wired868)
Two days later on 7 October, the two-time World Youth Cup player apparently proved that the apology was a hollow one. And Hart was true to his word.
Despite facing some criticism for allowing Molino to play against Guatemala, Hart took firm stances for breaches of discipline before.
Playmaker Keon Daniel was dropped after traveling home on a TTFA ticket but then failing to show for his flight to Jamaica for a friendly international match in November 2013. Daniel was never recalled.
Joevin and W Connection defender Daneil Cyrus were omitted from the squad for a friendly international match against New Zealand, in October 2013, after both pulled out of a previous international engagement and were caught playing minor league football during the international break.
Any issues that might have existed within the squad since then were considered too minor for anything more than an internal fine. Until, of course, Molino decided to “Over Dweet” on the dance floor.
(Courtesy Allan V Crane/Wired868)
His potential departure leaves a gaping hole for the Warriors in that advanced midfield position, which, ironically, he inherited from Daniel.
Central FC midfielder Keron “Ball Pest” Cummings is felt to still be short of his best form, as he regains his rhythm after a lengthy off due to being shot in his leg last December.
Charlotte Battery playmaker Ataulla Guerra failed to make the most of his opportunities under Hart and has not worn red, black and white in over a year. While Mexico-based attackers Jomal Williams and Shahdon Winchester have two international goals between them and are still unproven at senior international level.
In the short term, Hart is likely to ask combative midfielder Khaleem Hyland to play higher up the field alongside Kenwyne Jones, although—Jomal and Winchester apart—another option would be to try Joevin or teenaged starlet Levi Garcia as supporting strikers.
For now, the Warriors appear to be short of one of their brightest talents. Hart’s job was hard enough already.
(Courtesy CONCACAF)
(Trinidad and Tobago Team)
Goalkeepers: Jan-Michael Williams, Adrian Foncette;
Defenders: Mekeil Williams, Aubrey David, Daneil Cyrus, Tristan Hodge, Radanfah Abu Bakr, Sheldon Bateau;
Midfielders: Khaleem Hyland, Andre Boucaud, Kevan George, Neveal Hackshaw;
Attacking midfielders: Joevin Jones, Cordell Cato, Levi Garcia, Jomal Williams;
Forwards: Kenwyne Jones, Trevin Caesar, Shahdon Winchester.
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Lasana Liburd is the managing director and chief editor at Wired868.com and a journalist with over 20 years experience at several Trinidad and Tobago and international publications including Play the Game, World Soccer, UK Guardian and the Trinidad Express.
Yes Narada and I can also mentioned a few other players who should have been millionaires today and for the same reason of lacking discipline an the professionalism that is required from them when they go abroad to make the real professional teams eh, they were sent right back to our sweet country and some of them ended up plying their trade in the other lower leagues abroad eh for smaller monies. Them really good yes.
Nah he on ?
Earl I can’t find the article so I do apologize for that but after his first season at Orlando or second there was information about him being laid back and late to training etc. I give respect to coach hart on making the tough call.
Smh, really dude…
DROP his ass…that is the damn problem when you believe you are a star…you are a MLS player……..
Carlos Lee try yuh best with that lame excuse eh, does the word PROFESSIONALISM means anything to you eh and that is the real problem with some of our players, again don’t you know that our players will never try that madness with their professional teams abroad eh and our very own Russel The Magician Latapy learn’t that the hard way when he went out partying and drinking plenty rum with is partner in crime Dwight Yorke eh and on his way home he got into an accident eh and his Coach buss his throat and they lost the final eh and just imagine that the accident happened two weeks before the final eh and as I always say it is just ah Trini thing and nobody will ever understand it eh. Them really good yes.
Yeah and what about the 1989 Strike Squad team eh when the players was allowed to go and party and sex down the place with their women eh and the present Coach Brian Williams of the under 20 national team along with other players in his car almost went over or went over a precipice eh rushing back the morning to ketch the bus to travel from all the way from Fyzabad eh to the Hasely Crawford Stadium eh and tell always told me that it wasn’t the plan for the team to loose against the America eh in order for them to go to the 1990 World because they was hosting thier first ever World Cup in 1994 in my second sweetest country that made plenty millions of monies eh so yes the TTFA has been allowing this set of madness ah very long time ago eh ssteeuuppss. Them really good yes.
Not creating excuses for Molino, but maybe his actions are a direct result of too rigid/restrictive an environment during these live-in camps. I’m not privy to the day to day activities within the camp, but maybe the players should be allowed some flex time/family time away from the team/hotel environment to relax (with some restriction of-course, eg. no alcohol consumption). I imagine being hung up in a hotel for 5-6 days can’t be too much fun, especially during home games and with your friends and family just a few minutes away. Note that many of these players are plying their trade abroad and often don’t get time to see their families and friends, Coach Hart might want to consider implementing some flex time for his players during home camps, to help ensure he has a full complement of players available before the end of the Hex. If players continue to break camp every time they come together for home matches, and coach Hart decides to give them the boot, he’ll have to call up old timers like myself just to field a team.
Molino is the only player to break camp though. And Hart has spoken about the need for players to relax and meet family. I think he fully knows they aren’t robots. Not like Hart has never handled a team of men before.
There is limited time together as a team and there are sacrifices to be made. 19 players were fine with that. 1 wasn’t.
Carlos that is assuming the coach doesn’t allow family time. I would be hard pressed to think that doesn’t happen at the senior level.
Hart said once that Kenwyne Jones informs him before he leaves the hotel at all times, including during the day.
And Kenwyne is the most senior man there. Twice in a month is a man who really needs his head examined.
Carlos, the nature of the job. Either you want to play or not.
Carlos.. With all due respect and consideration.. Non sense.. It’s not good enough period. This thing about too restrictive for 5-6 days is a weak excuse. It must be their obsession to qualify for the World Cup. That unprofessionalism cannot be accepted and there is no excuse. Bored? Honestly Bored? You got your phone, IPad, television and teammates. That’s all you need for 5-6 days. It’s not a damn holiday camp.. It’s a football camp with the ultimate prize down the road being World Cup qualification. He is very lucky I’m not the manager.
If I am not mistaken, Coach Hart did allow family time during this Camp…..
Hmmmm is all I can say
Was it a 5/6 day ban? Or just a nighttime curfew?
You got dig deep to make a World Cup, Carlos. Ask the older guys like Kelvin Jack about sacrifice. Jason Scotland and even Sancho and those guys. It’s not easy. Of course, I know you know that already. Gotta pay the cost…
Well done coach hart
He not ready some young people don’t know about sacrifices he feel he reach
HE DOES NOT CARE ABOUT TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Weeys we best player inno?
Young talented footballers world wide always come with discipline problems…Trinidad Team coaches have very little tools to use for discipline….
. . .typical Trini thinking talent is everything but lacks the discipline that can set them apart. Steven Hart is right. . .drop him there are other ppl with the hunger to play. He don’t understand his role.
Steupsss Dion sosa
No frigging discipline
He’d never play another match if I was coach
He would be in the bench for a long time
He’ll be on the couch watching us play. Not on my team. Twice in one month? Nah!!!!
Lol..really eh..that is just stupid
And disrespectful to the head coach and his teammates
He need some man-handling
Stuff like this is serious but it happens in almost every team. My hope is that coach Hart does whatever is best for the team. If that means that Molino needs to play then so be it. There are other ways to punish the player. Make the fine 3 times the amount of the first time.
Remember meeting Strike Squad skipper Clayton Morris who could barely begin to wrap his head around the idea that players could even begin to conceive of doing such a thing on the eve of such major tournaments..
Dion that is patently unfair and condescending. He is a product of his environment and seems like a decent chap otherwise
…. Then how else to you get him to act responsibly? It’s about time we have a real coach. No one is bigger than the game or team. Shape up or ship out.
Well he make sense party more important Trinis mentality
If the TTFA use to stop the players who use to do the same set ah madness many moons ago eh, my player Micky Trotman R. I. P. wudda be alive today and all the generations following would have kept on the straight and narrow road now it took my foreign base / Trini Coach Hart to show all of them how we does drop it like it hot in his second sweetest country Canada and my second sweetest country the America and we don’t stick eh when it comes to discipline and the team first we don’t care if yuh is Messi or any other great player steeuuppss Them really good yes.
When you break camp you will be fired. Boy must become responsible men. Set the standards for all players.
I wonder if he is behave so when he travelling with his MLS team..steups
In my experience, you struggle to turn such vices on and off. If it hasn’t happened there yet, it will.
I understand eh Bruce hence the reason why I have been calling for the Players Association to be up and running in our sweet country the right way and with my experience over the years dealing with plenty of our players and all who knows me eh I will surely get through to them and all this madness will stop eh but nobody eh taking me on nah. Them really good yes.
I have been so two of his MLS games in the last year in new jersey and toronto and i didn’t notice such behaviour from him after the game
You thought he might start partying in the post game press conference Colin? ??
Lasana Liburd haha I mean more in team environment after leaving stadium
He seemed just focused on leaving city and moving on to next game instead of checking out night life compared to chatter I saw from his team mates
You have no idea what he did in the wee hours of that night unless you were with him. But, in case, most clubs allow their players to go out after a match once there isn’t another game within a particular time frame.
The problem is not that he likes to party. It is WHEN he likes to party.
Ye no debates there
Terry, Lasana…are you guys looking at the game? We are poor they are very poor
Tough game. I won’t say poor. Tough opponent. Away. And suddenly forced to adjust without their captain and top player.
yes. The ball control is pretty poor
What do you expect if they have been liming all wkend?
Savitri, sadly common sense is no longer as common as it used to be. Young men’s brains are differently wired today and administrators have to develop the skills to understand this change.
Mango, I agree to some extent with your comments regarding some of our previous star players and their inclination to break rules. However, my experience with the couple you mentioned, was a little different. Their example to the younger players of commitment to professionalism and pride in personal performance was exemplary. The overall management of players cannot be left to the coach who has a tough enough job. There must be an environment within the team that is self regulating. The players must set and agree the rules, be fully committed to them, and enforce them for the benefit of all. I saw it in 2006, and players were happy and self regulating, and no one stepped out of line simply because they would know that THEY LET THE TEAM DOWN. Why do we not learn from these experiences????
Because they are just too damn indisciplined which has always been a problem with our players.. About time serious action be taken and send a clear message to others who may want to try the same crap. Molino should be setting an example for the younger members instead he throws away his first chance, does it again which says to me screw allyuh i doing my own ting oui regardless of the consequences. He may as well have shown us the finger. Steups!!
… And after that I would put disco balls in everyone else’s room, just in case! 🙂
I would take it up with him in front of all the players and blast him for his disrespect, dishonesty
I understand back in the day, Jack Warner used to assign a security guard to watch Arnold Dwarika for when he tried to slip out. Lol. Of course Dwarika never came remotely close to fulfilling his potential. Not by a long shot.
Molino’s actions are like a kick in the nuts.
i will always remember that time i saw Dwarika down by Nari’s having a drink of rum in a glass. no ice. no mixer. straight rum in a drinking glass. not a tumbler eh…regular drinking glass…
Smh
and yes, he was still on the active player roster at the time.
Yeah and what about when the national team was going away to represent our sweet country eh and the day before himself along with another player was in a bar drinking plenty rum eh, the fella was just another Garrincha eh plenty talent eh but the rum bottle ended their careers eh Them really good yes.
He needs to be dropped permanently.
I wonder if Hart tried putting a disco ball in Molino’s room! 🙂
Lol
LMAO!!! Good one Lasana.
I would have drop him for good.
No. It hurst the team chances to progress.
Simone at this stage Molino could cost the coach his job or the dressing room.
Win with discipline not with law breakers. Lawless is what has this country sport in a mess. Standards they have to maintain abroad playing for other clubs or team.
Lasana Liburd standards.
Lasana Liburd Yes but I think stuff like this happens in many teams. How many national teams cut their most prolific player ( I didn’t say best, because I think that is what Jomal will be). You have to do things in the interest of the team advancing to the World Cup. Cutting Molino is not. Fine him three times as much, yes.
Simone, let me answer your question. The South American champions, Chile. They dropped Vidale last month after he broke team camp for second time–although first incident was a year earlier.
Molino broke the same rule twice in a month. That has to be a joke.
Lasana Liburd I know but is Vidal completely out of the picture for the long haul? Mind you he is important to Chile but probably Molino in comparison is more important to T&T.
Vidal scored 2 goals tonight in Chile’s victory. He is an asshole but he delivers. Is Molino expected to deliver if he goes clubbing before every match?
Martinique scored in extra time. 1-0 4 minutes to go in extra time
Eric Maitrejean As you see Vidal wasn’t cut when it mattered. You have to punish the player, not hurt the team. There is nothing more than most of these guys care other than money. That is how you punish them. Large fines.
Simone, he was cut from World Cup qualifying games. He was disciplined. He just wasn’t fired altogether.
If Molino’s appearance in the squad does more harm than good, he won’t play. Simple as that. And that is the coach’s call.
Well we are losing to martinique 1-0 with 2 minutes to go
Well tonight we are witnessing that Molino not playing hurts the team
Can someone tell me if that means T&T is out of the next Gold Cup???
Molino’s actions might have hurt the team more than anything else. And Kenwyne isn’t playing either which could be just as impactful or more so.
T&T did well without Molino at Gold Cup and for early World Cup qualifiers when we won away to Guatemala and drew USA. So careful with those judgments.
As much as Molino is undoubtedly a fine player.
I don’t agree the fines work better than suspension. These guys feel bigger than the team and in Vidal’s case it must have pissed him off to be left out and he came back with a vengeance to make amends. If the coach had let him on, he would have felt he could continue with impunity.
Losing to Martinique. In one month playing against Costa Rica currently ranked 15 in Fifa, coming off of a 4-3 away win in Russia ?
T&T can still qualify for Gold Cup through play off. But we are out of Caribbean Cup once we lose.
I’m waiting to see what CFU’s decision is on the dates for the gold cup playoffs matches…as it is T&T has games on Nov 9th, 12th and 15th (gold cup playoffs) and Nov 11th and 15th (world cup qualifiers).
Steupssss… Rel disappointing molino
Calm down over there
#warriortimeisnow thats not too vague is it
Mourinho throws dissidents to the wolves and let’s them explain to press, fans, family, team mates…. no respect from someone asking for respect. Smh
Steupssssssss
Well we roll without him …. !!
Me too but you can take the player out of the ghetto but not always the ghetto out of the player
This is why he needs counseling.
where can i get live streaming?
The feed is down now
Like Molino needs a GPS
He is probaly my favorite Trini player I am so mad and disaapointed
Yeah he is up there so disappointing.
‘Terry it is beyond that. This is a serious issue. Probably some woman he went to meet Ssad
No pride in the shirt or responsibility for his country
This is beyond a disclipine issue. He needs counseling from a licensed professional
The team is obviously rattled.
The enforcement of discipline resides with the coach.The rewards off discipline manifest in the player.The cornerstone of discipline is the morale of the team.
naysayers/ steps. whatever yes. it is bullshit you feel that his actions are professional?
AGAIN!!! Come nah man Molino…. I agree with Coach Hart 100 %…. No one is bigger than the team… These fellas eh accomplish anything yet, but acting like they reach… Smdh
Tsk Tsk aye so much naysayers smh
Stacey Lachmie Lalchan yuh know what?? Yuh on ranking shit..I read your posts the last time and held my tongue..but rather you come here to try to defend totally unprofessional behaviour…needless to say it is also disrespectful to his teammates ,the coach and the staff..Rather than talk to yuh friend,man or lover or whatever status you hold in his life to try to do the right thing..you come on to a site to defend BS??? Well if it was you he went to lime with in Vas, you should take a look in the mirror and feel really good about yourself..NOT!!! Cause if you considered yourself a good friend to him you would have encouraged him to do the right thing..Of course it is the player who is ultimately to blame for his actions..but a true friend would have encouraged him to stay in camp..Not come up on sites to make themselves sound chupid in defending the indefensible…Yea he is one of our better players..no disputing that..but we will persevere without him…By his actions he was basically telling the coach to F**K himself and his rules..but managed to do just that to himself in the process…Too dotish!!
What d hell in this man head
So wappen to he! No control over himself he have so. There will always be party, wining and dining. He needs to get it together and be a good role model as a senior player.
Jackarse
Ah know alyuh feel that I only like plenty bacchanal and satire eh but I use to tell my players that football is my high eh I don’t smoke no ganja nor drink any rum and once they get me high by playing good football and scoring plenty goals eh, I just use to get them any thing that they wanted from boots, to paying them to represent my organization , DeeJaying in their weddings, birthday parties, christenings and even being the God father to eh and having boatrides in order to raise plenty funds in order to do so eh. Them really good yes.
#PositiveVibez ✊