Soca Warriors coach, Germany’s Otto Pfister will know if he has a future as T&T national coach when the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation (TTFF) holds a press conference from this morning from 7.30am. The announcement is high on the agenda following T&T’s exit from 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification on Tuesday. The press conference is also being hosted by All Sport Promotions Limited, the organising contracted to deal with the day-to-day affairs of the local deferation takes place at the Jaffa Restaurant, Queen's Park Oval, Tragarete Road.
At the briefing the T&TFF’s acting president Lennox Watson is expected to make a statement on all aspects of the federaion and its national team, with the main topic of discussion being that on Pfister’s future. The Soca Warriors were beaten 2-1 in Guyana on Friday in their penultimate second round Concacaf Group B Brazil 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifier.
Pfister and his players had a 2-0 victory on Tuesday at the Hasely Crawford Stadium, Mucurapo with goals from Kenwyne Jones and Lester Peltier, but it was all in vain as they ended second in the group with 12 points, one behind the Guyanese who advanced. The exit by the Soca Warriors, meant the first time since the 1982 Spain World Cup campaign, T&T had failed to make it to at least the Concacaf semifinal round of qualification.
It is widely expected that Pfister will be replaced as speaking on Monday at a press conference Minister of Sports, Anil Roberts expressed his view that the 74-year-old Pfister who he deemed as a good coach should be shown the door. This after he failed to get the team to its target of the World Cup Finals appearance in Brazil in 2014. Roberts noted that while he was in no position to tell the T&TFF what to do in terms of hiring and firing of technical staff and coaches, his Ministry was in no position to continue paying the elite performance salary of US$50,000 to Pfister to coach the team when they were out of the running for Brazil.
A former national swim coach, Roberts said the focus should now be shifted to development whereby local coaches should have the chance to prove their worth over the next three to four years. Pfister who has been in charge of the team for only seven matches was hired at the end of the March following the sacking of former coach and T&T captain, Russell Latapy. Latapy was fired as senior team at the start of December following a poor showing at the Digicel Caribbean Cup finals where the team suffered losses to Cuba (2-0) and Grenada (1-0) before beating Martinique (1-0) on November 30, 2010, but still failing to qualify for the Concacaf Gold Cup.
However, while he was hired in March, Pfister, the sixth national coach in six years (Bertille St Clair, Leo Beenhakker Wim Rijsbergen, Francisco Maturana, Russell Latapy) only got his first international match on August 21 versus India, eight months after the Martinique match and just under two weeks before the start of the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign against Bermuda, a 1-0 win.
Pfister then endured a torrid time with a number of players leaving on trials while he was helped by the delay in the start of the Digicel Pro League. His other results with the T&T team included two wins over Barbados (2-0 and 4-0) and a 2-1 loss away to Bermuda, which he cited as the major result for the team not progressing to the next round where powerhouses, Mexico, Costa Rica and El Salvador await.
Source: www.guardian.co.tt
By Nigel Simon