On Fri­day 6 June 2025, the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um wasn’t just about a World Cup qual­i­fy­ing win—it was a cel­e­bra­tion of some­thing deep­er.

It was a mo­ment that re­mind­ed us of foot­ball’s pow­er to uni­fy, en­er­gise, and in­spire a na­tion.

From the ear­ly af­ter­noon, the buzz in Port of Spain was un­mis­tak­able. Flags wav­ing from car win­dows, fans, young and old in red ap­proach­ing the venue, and an elec­tric­i­ty in the air that hint­ed at some­thing spe­cial to come. And when the kick­off fi­nal­ly came, the sta­di­um rang out—not just with noise, but with be­lief.

The team de­liv­ered. On the pitch, Trinidad and To­ba­go’s men showed com­po­sure, grit, and the abil­i­ty to bounce back, re­spond­ing to pres­sure with pur­pose. There was co­he­sion and con­fi­dence—hall­marks of a group grow­ing in­to them­selves, de­ter­mined to write their own chap­ter on the road to the 2026 World Cup.

But be­yond the re­sult, the oc­ca­sion felt his­toric be­cause of what was hap­pen­ing off the field.

The crowd was phe­nom­e­nal. Not just in num­bers, but in spir­it. Fam­i­lies, long-time sup­port­ers, and new fans—all mov­ing as one. You could feel the uni­ty, the joy, and the pride. For a few hours, it felt like the en­tire coun­try were pulling in the same di­rec­tion.

That, in it­self, is a kind of vic­to­ry.

Cred­it must go to the TTFA for step­ping up their game-day op­er­a­tions. From the dig­i­tal vi­su­als and play­er in­tros in the tun­nel to the cold sparks as the team walked out to the rhythm sec­tions and par­ty stands, it was an at­mos­phere wor­thy of the oc­ca­sion. Of course, there's al­ways room to re­fine lo­gis­tics and im­prove fan ex­pe­ri­ence, but the foun­da­tion is sol­id and clear­ly im­prov­ing.

Be­hind the scenes, the FañA's ramped-up me­dia and mar­ket­ing ef­forts have be­gun to bear fruit. The Yorke fac­tor—his name, lega­cy, and pres­ence—added mo­men­tum.

And the im­pact was vis­i­ble: fans flew in from Lon­don af­ter watch­ing the Uni­ty Cup match­es; oth­ers trav­elled from the US, and some even changed their trav­el dates af­ter see­ing the team at The Brix Ho­tel and hear­ing buzz about the game. That kind of pas­sion can’t be bought—it must be earned. And slow­ly, it feels like this team is do­ing just that.

The sup­port ex­tend­ed be­yond the stands too. Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment and for­mer na­tion­al cap­tain David Nakhid dropped by a team train­ing ses­sion, shar­ing words and mem­o­ries with for­mer team­mates Dwight Yorke and Rus­sell Lat­apy. But more than just nos­tal­gia, Nakhid took re­al ac­tion—step­ping in to meet ur­gent needs and of­fer­ing tan­gi­ble as­sis­tance to the squad when it mat­tered most.

It was a pow­er­ful re­minder that the past and present of Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball are con­nect­ed—and stronger to­geth­er.

Min­is­ter of Sport Phillip Watts al­so made his pres­ence felt, vis­it­ing the lock­er room post-match to of­fer words of en­cour­age­ment and reaf­firm his min­istry’s sup­port for the team. These are the kinds of touch­es that help re­in­force the sense that the na­tion­al pro­gram is not iso­lat­ed—it’s em­braced.

This group of play­ers is clear­ly grow­ing—not just in con­fi­dence and abil­i­ty, but as a unit.

There’s a gen­uine sense of ca­ma­raderie and be­lief with­in the camp. Now, the jour­ney in­ten­si­fies. As the team set­tled in Cos­ta Ri­ca, they were star­ing down a chal­leng­ing 20-day stretch on the road, head­ing straight from Cen­tral Amer­i­ca in­to the CON­CA­CAF Gold Cup. It’s a crit­i­cal pe­ri­od—one that de­mands fo­cus, en­durance, and con­tin­ued sup­port.

We moved in­to Cos­ta Ri­ca car­ry­ing the mo­men­tum of the home win—an­oth­er show of hope, tenac­i­ty, and am­bi­tion. And once again, the play­ers pushed them­selves, de­liv­er­ing a per­for­mance that re­flect­ed grow­ing ma­tu­ri­ty, hunger, and be­lief. Every train­ing ses­sion, every team talk, and every match mo­ment is now part of a big­ger mis­sion.

As the team tran­si­tions in­to Gold Cup mode, the ob­jec­tive isn’t on­ly about do­ing well at the tour­na­ment—it’s about build­ing to­ward the next round of World Cup qual­i­fy­ing. These match­es are both tests and tools: every minute on the pitch is an op­por­tu­ni­ty to im­prove, to tight­en the sys­tem, and to forge stronger chem­istry.

Then, from our base in San­ta Clara, US, as we touched down ahead of the Gold Cup, the en­tire team gath­ered around screens to wit­ness the draw for the fi­nal round of World Cup qual­i­fy­ing. A mo­ment of re­flec­tion and re­fo­cus. We feel good about the draw—but there’s no room for com­pla­cen­cy. The task ahead is enor­mous. All hands must be on deck.

Every match will re­quire our A-game—on and off the field. This is where be­lief meets dis­ci­pline. This is where tal­ent meets re­spon­si­bil­i­ty. And through it all, side by side we stand.

This cam­paign is about more than just mak­ing it to a tour­na­ment. It’s about restor­ing pride, re­build­ing faith, and reignit­ing a foot­ball cul­ture that unites the na­tion. If we con­tin­ue in this di­rec­tion—with uni­ty, vi­sion, and be­lief—Trinidad and To­ba­go foot­ball may just be on the verge of some­thing tru­ly trans­for­ma­tion­al.

Ed­i­tor's note

Shaun Fuentes is the head of TTFA Me­dia and mar­ket­ing. He was a FI­FA me­dia of­fi­cer at the 2010 FI­FA World Cup in South Africa and the 2013 FI­FA U-20 World Cup in Turkey. He has trav­elled to 88 coun­tries dur­ing his jour­ney in sport. The views ex­pressed are sole­ly his and not a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of any or­gan­i­sa­tion. shaunfuentes@ya­hoo.com