Well what to say
Today we lacked determination in one word
Our fellas were 3 steps behind d whole way and looking real sluggish
I not sure if the ball crossed mid line before 35 minutes to tell you the truth

Quick observations:
MY OPINION: Gary Glasgow was missed, his off the ball speed and ability to stretch the defense was noticeably absent
Roberts needs to take a rest, start Glasgow and Toussaint next match up front
The injury real set us back. Switching dem men position so early was a big problem
Power to central mid and Spann to back caused problems.
Spann, boy for all the good work you do Thursday, he take the total wrong angle to the ball on the first goal. All the man had to do was run at he to the corner and cut the man off and there was no goal on that play. Apart from that he left the back post man wide open 3 times.

IT was obvious from the stands they were always lagging both mentally and physically.
At the press conference Bradley the US coach made a great point; When it comes to international ball, its much faster than what these men are use playing. They have to make the adjustment to individually step up and raise their game both physically and mentally to the next level in order to survive at this level. This is something TNT clearly needs to work on

You could see we were behind is pace and mental decisions the whole match. In fact there were some stretches where you could throw a blanket up and cover 5 TNT players one time.

Then on to Baptiste. Man had perfect feeds in the box and had dreadful first touches on both. A World class player (cough Stern) would have one timed both of those balls. If they go in or not is another question, but oh gosh man do something with it nah. I was talking to Patriot about it, why that first touch, why not hit the damn ball ,and he tell me: “boy you answer your own question….”

the team just seemed to be doing more walking than running right from the get go

this is a brief report, more to follow

I would personally like to thank Vashti on behalf of he Warrior Nation. Dhalin, if you read this, on behalf of the Warrior Nation thank you so much for taking us in and treating us to a wonderful time in LA

That leads to my next point

Today made me understand something
Being a Trinbago supporter is not all about the football alone
It?��Ǩ�Ѣs about bringing together people with a common passion… the country, the people, the lime, the music, the food, the ol talk
Its about being Trinbagonian, a wonderful unique culture we should all be proud of
So for allyuh talking boycott this, Jack that…..BIG STEUPS, ride off and find another team to support
Allyuh who chose not to attend real miss out, the Boston crew who go will understand what im saying.

Ricky out

EDIT: I owe Spann an apology
I thought that was he that got blown by on first the goal, not Power
we were behind the goal on the other side in the last row and I didnt see a replay until now

well ppl, today is the big one.
Im heading down with Feliz and Tallman in a few minutes
Expect a larger support section for TNT today, we went to lime at Treehouse last night and most of dem men said they were going.
Place was bumping pretty good
Feliz took us on a missed exit tour of LA after Treehouse last night and spend 2.5 hours getting back home LOL
Today I not walking with the laptop, the Pressbox is rather small so i wont be able to get a spot with a view of the field. But rest assure Patriot and myself will be hitting the buffet first
Ill take in all the action and file a report later

Well fellow Nation members, here goes my first blog attempt
By no means can I match touches grand reports but here goes

The day started in true Trini fashion with us finding out that our Warrior Nation tickets had been issued for the wrong section. The Nation was to be sitting in section 103; upon looking at our tickets we found them to be 139. Pressure. Feliz like a mad man spend the whole morning running around to organize the correct tickets and contact other WN members to get them the new tickets in time for the match. As it turned out, it would not have really mattered. We were told by the home Depot Center that over 300 tickets had been sold in the TNT section (103), what we were not told was they were sold to El Salvadorans and Guatemalans. My best count of Trinbagonian support at the stadium would be less than 50. Was this a boycott due to the blacklist? Perhaps, but it was sad to see the lack of support. The announced crowd was about 21,500 of which my guess would be 90% Latino. it was a true road match for our Warriors. The central American support was quite loud and even had a small rhythm section of their own behind the north goal. The Central american fans would be very loud almost everytime one of their players touched the ball. Neutral/USA fans seemed to be supporting the Warriors, this was noted in the 2nd half as they seemed to enjoy how we were playing the match. The WN crew consisted of DeSoWa and his 2 friends, Feliz, Alberta Trini and his 2 sons, myself and PAtriot. There were about 20 other Trinis sitting by us who were brought to the game by a local LA Trini named Vashti who has been in contact with the WN

Ok on to the match, I linked up with Patriot and we headed up to the press box for a nice pre game meal and set up. The box was rammed pack with the USA match still on so we were forced to sit up on a little corner behind the camera and could hardly see the field. An official looking man with a FIFA jacket who looked like Jack Warner?��Ǩ�Ѣs brother had 3 empty seats beside him on press row. I approached him to ask if we could sit at those seats and was very rudely declined. Oh well what to do. The press box coordinator of HDC was very helpful to us and was even rolling his eyes at the man and apologetic. In time the man left and Patriot and I set up about 10 minutes into our match.

On to the game?��Ǩ��we started with a 4-4-2 made up of JM Williams, Keyeno Thomas, Thomas Nickcolsonm Seon Power, Anthony Norigea, Romauld Agrullera, Andrei Pacheo, Slivio Spann, Densil Theoblad, Gary Glasgow, Darryl Roberts
We were a little surprised by the exclusion of Toussiant and Baptiste but they were brought on as subs later

I wont go into full match details as Patriot will be a better technical writer about the match, but the game started with a cracker for us. 8th minute Mr. Silvio Spann hit one of the best free kicks I have seen a Trinibagonian take. 40-yard cracker top right corner out reach of the out stretched hands of a diving keeper. WHAT A GOAL. If you could believe, I actually missed the goal having my head in the computer, but was made aware of it by Patriot jumping up and down yelling “goal boy” and running down the press box to high 5 fuentes
1-0 TNT
We held our own for most of the first half. Seon Power had a dreadful giveaway in the 4th minute that lead to an ES chance, but after that Power settled down and played a really nice game, apart from the 2nd ES goal which was a big mix up. EL scored their 2 goals as a result of dreadful back line mistakes. The fist the came off a free kick in the 38th minute. The kick was punched away my JM Williams to ES# 21 Quintanilla. Quintanilla fumbled the touch and looked like the danger was over, but to his credit he pounded the ball back into the area and a very nice back flip touch was made by #16 Larios to a wide open #14 Sanchez who put the ball into the open goal. Some nice touches by the El Salvadorans on the goal, but the main culprit was suspect back line defending by The Trinidadians that left Sanchez WIDE OPEN

The second El Salvador goal came in the 81st minute by the Miller Lite player of the match Dennis Alas. Again dreadful back line coverage and handling of the ball resulted in the ball coming free to an open Alas who calmly placed the ball in the net.
Trinidad and Tobago really showed no signs of getting back into game after that point.
We had some good chances through the match and at the post game press conference Wim seemed pleased with the effort of the lads but was disappointed with the lack of back line focus that cost us the 2 goals.

Now it?��Ǩ�Ѣs on to the USA. This will be a very hard match for us. Even though the American will be without the large center back Onyewu who picked up a red card against Guatemala, it will be difficult for TNT to get a result. But as one member often says ?��Ǩ?�god is the boss?��Ǩ�� and anything could happen. This was a very winnable game for TNT and the fact we let the 3 points slip away puts us in a very hard situation, but the boys will keep plugging away and not give up. For my liking the El Salvadorans left the back post open all the time and we did not have the bodies there to take advantage. I would like to see Noriega get more involved. Even though he moved up for the dead ball kicks he was a non-factor. He is a very large body and should be able to get some heads on the ball in the attacking area. I was pleased with the play of Gary Glasgow apart from the chances he missed, he held the ball well but took a little to long to distribute after that. People will fault him for not hitting the target but he worked hard to get into positions at the correct time. He had a wonderful chance right before being subbed in the 67th minute. Looks like Gary took a knock earlier in the half and that hindered him the rest of the way. Hopefully he will be ready for the Americans.
Slivio Spann was on pace for a man of the match performance had TNT got a result; he was subbed out in the 73rd for Kerry Baptiste. This looked like it may have been due to injury as I saw him talking to the bench and shaking his hand right before the move
Ill leave the other player ratings for Patriot

I took some audio recordings during the day; they will be posted on the site soon.
Being rookies at this, we went to the post game press conference, in which the El Salvadorans were asked tons of questions by Spanish media. By the time they were done the TNT team had already left so we were not able to get individual interviews?��Ǩ��. we will have this sorted better for the USA match

MATCH STATS SLV TRI

GOALS: TRI 16?��Ǩ�Ѣ Spann
SLV: 38?��Ǩ�Ѣ Sanchez
81?��Ǩ�Ѣ Alas
BOOKED: SLV: #21 Quintanilla 86?��Ǩ�Ѣ, TRI: #14 Roberts 5;, #20 Noriega 45+

Goal Attempts (7)15 (5)11
Saves (2)4 (1)3
Fouls (5)8 (7)13
Corners (2)4 (4)8
Offsides (3)5 (0)0

Ref: German Arredondo (MEX)

Well fellas, I reached LA last night in time to see the Ducks win the Stanley Cup (haha had to throw that in for Palos)
As I type, Feliz is on the way to pick me up and we will head to Home Depot Center and get set up. Ill be walking with my laptop and digital voice recorder on the off chance I will be able to provide live updates from the pressbox via internet. If anything I will make a post about the event later tonight or tomorrow.
Keep checking the site for more updates as I am able to provide
Thanks, T and T…WE WANT A GOAL