Dear Editor: Soca Warriors must stop begging for luck and build capacity for real success

“[…] More possession, more shots, prettier football—none of it matters without results. Sympathy doesn’t qualify teams. Goals and points do.

“We need to stop confusing ‘progress’ with ‘promise’. Progress is what you measure on the scoreboard and the standings. Promise is what you say when you didn’t get the result but want credit anyway…”

The following Letter to the Editor on the supposed changes needed to turnaround the fortunes of the Trinidad and Tobago national football teams was submitted to Wired868 by Betterment, who describes himself as ‘a supporter of effort over excuses’:

Thank you to all who engaged with the recent letter on the Reggae Boyz result and the notion of “creating our own luck”. The responses were passionate, well-argued, and—most importantly—a sign that people still care deeply about the state of Trinidad and Tobago football.

Let me be clear: the original piece was not an attempt to suggest that “bad luck” is our biggest problem. Nor was it an attack on Dwight Yorke or his players.

Rather, it was a challenge—an uncomfortable one perhaps—for us to stop accepting hard-luck stories as a substitute for hard truths. Because in football, luck tends to follow those who earn it.

Several readers made the case that this is not about luck at all—but rather about decades of underinvestment, poor governance, and the absence of any real footballing structure.

They’re absolutely right.

Jamaica’s current trajectory didn’t appear overnight. It came from structure, vision, consistent youth development, and an understanding that if you want to compete at the highest level, you have to build the machinery first.

Meanwhile, we in Trinidad and Tobago keep looking for results without first laying the groundwork. We want World Cup moments without World Cup-level preparation.

Some defended Dwight Yorke, and fairly so. International football is not a club job. Coaches don’t get daily training sessions or months of pre-season.

Yorke is still new, still learning, and still hasn’t had consistent access to the full player pool.

But even within that context, the same question applies: are we doing enough with what we have?

If the answer is no—and based on our inconsistencies, it might be—then the conversation shouldn’t only be about patience, but also about support.

One suggestion raised was the idea of appointing an experienced co-coach with World Cup experience. That’s not a knock on Yorke—it’s a step toward giving him the tools to succeed.

The main message of the original piece remains unchanged: if we want to get better, we have to stop settling for we deserved better.

More possession, more shots, prettier football—none of it matters without results. Sympathy doesn’t qualify teams. Goals and points do.

We need to stop confusing “progress” with “promise”.

Progress is what you measure on the scoreboard and the standings. Promise is what you say when you didn’t get the result but want credit anyway.

And unfortunately, we’ve been living off promise for far too long.

Many readers emphasized the bigger picture: the TTFA’s failures, the lack of meaningful international friendlies, the short-sightedness of planning only for one qualifying cycle at a time.

These are real problems. And if we don’t fix them, we will keep finding ourselves in the same position—outplayed, outprepared, and out of the World Cup.

If we want to catch up with Jamaica, with Curaçao, with Panama or Canada or anyone else, we must stop pretending this is only about individual talent or coaching decisions.

It’s about football culture. And culture doesn’t change by chance. It changes by intention.

This is not about blaming Yorke, the players, or even the fans. This is about raising the standard across the board.

If we want to create our own luck, it starts with:

• A TTFA that prioritizes long-term development over quick fixes.
• A national team setup that gets meaningful match time, not just crisis camps.
• A public and media that demand more than just hope.

Because in modern football, luck is not magic. It’s preparation meeting opportunity.

And until we commit to both, we’ll keep watching our neighbours leave us behind—deserving better, but getting the same.

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