“1990?” asks Bobby, a rueful look distorting his facial features, “What I remember best about that campaign is Philbert Jones incredible miss from the edge of the six-yard box. “But I will also never forget Kerry Jamerson’s run in the second half of the second half of the last game …
Read More »From ‘kaisoca’ to ‘shittykyahkyah soccer’; Best muses on TTFA elections and Nov 19
At 11pm last night, I turned my TV off. Honduras 4, T&T 0. I had had enough. Despite the importance of the game, we had fielded nothing like our best team. The travel papers of some of the key players were not in order. But, it seems, we had only …
Read More »Open letter to William Wallace: Two blighs for United TTFA on apology, the first and the last
Dear Wally, When they go low, Michelle Obama urged the Democrats during the last presidential election campaign in the USA, you go high. I don’t know nearly enough about the US to pronounce authoritatively on behaviour in that space. But I dong here long and my navel string bury in …
Read More »The ghosts of November past: Best and Walcott review the T&T/USA WCQ
Wired868 columnist Earl Best and journalist Roneil Walcott evoke the ghosts of November past in five tableaux: (Tableau One) “Dem eh really understand, yuh know,” he said to me, his voice thick with emotion, “deh eh understand hommuch dat hurt.” I expected him to wipe away a tear but he …
Read More »Plea to Jack Warner-critic-cum-biographer: Come back home, Tino
Columnist Earl Best pens an open letter to current Guardian Sports Editor Valentino Singh, who initially led the campaign to have Austin Jack Warner brought to book for his November 19,1989 misdeeds and then turned around and tried to make Warner look good by authoring his two self-serving books: My …
Read More »Remember 19/11: O’Connor: Get over football tabanca
Peter O’Connor, TTFA president from 1985 through 1990, tells Wired868 that we should now stop crying over what we didn’t do and start celebrating what we have done well “Thank you, Strike Squad. We love you still.” The scoreboard is flashing those eight words large and brightly as I come …
Read More »Remember 19/11: Gally’s post-Strike Squad torment
Strike Squad coach Everald Cummings talks to Earl Best about what he felt on November 19, 1989, what he feels now and how he has been treated. PART II: Bitterness does not enter the picture when Strike Squad coach Everald “Gally” Cummings discusses the events of November 19, 1989; when …
Read More »Remember 19/11: When Gally mashed Jack’s corns on Road to Italy
Strike Squad coach Everald “Gally” Cummings talks to Earl Best in the first of a two-part interview about the Road to Italy and an explosive fall-out with TTFA general secretary Jack Warner PART I: “The sun,” Michael Maurice said about his failure to stop Paul Caligiuri’s long-range left-footed shot on …
Read More »Remember 19/11: What happened after the final whistle on Nov 19…
November 20, 1989 was the morning after the evening before. Having recaptured the pre-match euphoria, Ashford Jackman now reminds us of what it felt like that day when, cock-sure that we were bound for Italy, we all woke up to find that we were all dressed up with nowhere to …
Read More »Remember 19/11: The climb to the brink of history
Recapturing the euphoric mood of the moment, Ashford Jackman previews the final game of the 1990 World Cup qualifiers in which, to take T&T to the Finals in Italy, Everald “Gally” Cummings’ confident Strike Squad needed simply not to lose. Controversy. Adversity. Achievement. The clear signposts along the road travelled …
Read More »Remember 19/11: The 1989 red storm that set us free
Performance poet Roger Bonair-Agard who, as a teenager in the 1980’s, took football to be life, “saw” the November 19 match through a haze sitting in a Flatbush bar and recently sat down in a New York apartment to recreate the entire event for Wired868 in the first installment of our …
Read More »Strike Squad celebrates 25th Anniversary with walk for peace
Twenty five years ago the entire country joined the “Strike Squad” on the Road to Italy in its quest to achieve World Cup glory with a brand of soccer, inspired by myself as coach, coined “Kaisosoca”, which captured the spirit and the rhythm of the people and its indigenous music …
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