Latapy says T&T have the traits to be successful

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, (CMC):

Legendary former Trinidad and Tobago midfielder, Russell Latapy, has hailed the current national team, saying it possesses several of the elements required to be successful in the ongoing 2018 World Cup qualifying campaign.

Latapy, one of the finest talents to every emerge from the country, said the current team structure was reminiscent of successful past teams, and pointed out that the players appeared highly motivated to perform.

"Every generation has its time and its place and its challenges and its rewards, but if I look at this young crop of players, I definitely see a hungry, successful bunch of players who want to do well for themselves and who want to do well for the country," Latapy said.

"When I've looked at a couple of the games, I see a lot of similarities in the identity of all the successful teams that we've ever had in Trinidad. When we look back ... at all the successful teams we ever had, we had a couple things in common.

"We had good goalkeepers, steady defenders, we had creative players, we had tricky wingers, we had goal-scorers and we were exciting to watch."

FIRM IDENTITY

He added: "I think as a footballing nation - which we are now - we've always had an identity and we would always go at teams, and play exciting and get the crowd involved in the game with the tricky players that we had, and I can see these similarities in this team."

Trinidad and Tobago entered the CONCACAF World Cup qualifiers at the fourth round and have played unbeaten to date to lead Group C with ten points.

They opened their campaign with a crucial 2-1 victory over Guatemala in Guatemala City last November before battling to a nil-all draw with CONCACAF powerhouses, the United States, four days later.

Last month, they twice beat fellow Caribbean Football Union side St Vincent and the Grenadines, to take a huge step towards reaching the next round.

Latapy, who was part of the historic national side which qualified for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, said it was important that fans and the corporate community, threw their support behind the Warriors.

"I'm hoping that we can get a lot of sponsorship for these players and we can give them everything that is needed and wanted in order to have a successful campaign."

T&T resume their qualifying campaign in September with a clash against Guatemala.