In just un­der two months, T&T’s se­nior men’s na­tion­al foot­ball team will step on­to the field at Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um in Mu­cu­rapo, Port-of-Spain to open the fi­nal round of 2026 FI­FA World Cup qual­i­fy­ing. Sep­tem­ber 5 against Cu­raçao at home. Sep­tem­ber 9 away to Ja­maica in Kingston. Six games. One goal — to re­turn to the world stage.

And yet, as we ap­proach this defin­ing stretch, the ques­tion must be asked: Will we al­low our­selves to get side­tracked by noise, dis­trac­tions, and the same cy­cles of dif­fer­ent forms of di­vi­sion that have his­tor­i­cal­ly held us back? Or will we, for once, chan­nel every ounce of en­er­gy, uni­ty, and be­lief in­to the mis­sion at hand?

Let’s be re­al, the temp­ta­tion to drift in­to old habits is al­ways there. We’re quick to re­open wounds, chase nar­ra­tives, and get bogged down in try­ing to fix in six weeks what hasn’t been prop­er­ly ad­dressed in six years. But the hard truth is this: those deep­er struc­tur­al and ad­min­is­tra­tive mat­ters won’t be re­solved be­fore No­vem­ber. What can be re­solved, what must be achieved, is qual­i­fi­ca­tion. That’s the op­por­tu­ni­ty we face now.

Do we tru­ly un­der­stand what qual­i­fy­ing for the 2026 World Cup can mean for this coun­try? Twen­ty (20) years af­ter the 2006 qual­i­fi­ca­tion.

It’s not just about foot­ball. It’s about joy in the streets. It’s about giv­ing peo­ple, es­pe­cial­ly our youth, some­thing to ral­ly be­hind. It’s about lift­ing the na­tion­al spir­it at a time when di­vi­sion, crime, and ap­a­thy have tak­en root. A suc­cess­ful cam­paign can uni­fy com­mu­ni­ties, in­spire new tal­ent, reignite dor­mant pas­sion for the game, and open the door to se­ri­ous in­vest­ment and re­form in lo­cal foot­ball.

If we have a chance to im­prove the squad, let’s find the right path and do our part to con­tribute, rather than sit on the fence and wait. Every­one stands to ben­e­fit.

Just the feel of joy and pas­sion means we all win be­ing able to ex­pe­ri­ence it. Imag­ine back­ing our na­tion­al team in the US, Cana­da, or Mex­i­co next year — even if not in­side the sta­di­um, just be­ing in those host cities, sur­round­ed by that en­er­gy and pride. That’s not a fan­ta­sy, it’s a re­al pos­si­bil­i­ty with­in reach.

And make no mis­take, the oth­er com­pet­ing na­tions will be do­ing their home­work. They’ll be putting in the hours, build­ing mo­men­tum, strength­en­ing their squads, and try­ing to find every pos­si­ble edge. So must we. Our tech­ni­cal staff, led by Dwight Yorke, is ful­ly aware of the mag­ni­tude of the chal­lenge and will be do­ing their part to pre­pare this team with pre­ci­sion, pro­fes­sion­al­ism, and be­lief. They are backed by pres­i­dent Kieron Ed­wards and the TTFA (T&T Foot­ball As­so­ci­a­tion) lead­er­ship, with a du­ty to pro­vide the nec­es­sary tools and sup­port for suc­cess.

But prepa­ra­tion and be­lief can’t stop there. This has to be an all-hands-on-deck mo­ment. Stake­hold­ers across the board — clubs, pri­vate sec­tor, com­mu­ni­ties, me­dia, fans, for­mer play­ers — all have a role to play. The play­ers on the pitch will car­ry the weight, but the en­er­gy and sup­port around them must be na­tion­al. The busi­ness com­mu­ni­ty must un­der­stand that this is not just sport, this is an eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al op­por­tu­ni­ty.

It starts with fo­cus. Ruth­less, un­wa­ver­ing fo­cus.

That means back­ing our play­ers ful­ly, not nit­pick­ing every move or de­ci­sion be­fore a ball is even kicked. Of course, there are those who have a right to have their say. But that al­so means giv­ing our tech­ni­cal staff the space and sup­port to pre­pare with­out un­nec­es­sary dra­ma. That means fans show­ing up in red, singing loud, and mak­ing Hase­ly Craw­ford a fortress again.

It al­so means lead­er­ship at all lev­els mov­ing in sync — clear mes­sag­ing, co­or­di­nat­ed plan­ning, calm amidst the noise. We can­not af­ford sideshows and sab­o­tage dis­guised as “con­struc­tive crit­i­cism.” Let’s put the lit­tle ego aside for coun­try. Let’s stop the blame games and start back­ing the mis­sion.

By the time we host Bermu­da in our fi­nal game in No­vem­ber, we could al­ready be qual­i­fied. Imag­ine that. A home game not played un­der pres­sure, but un­der cel­e­bra­tion. Imag­ine giv­ing our­selves the breath­ing room, not in hope — but in re­al­i­ty.

But that mo­ment won’t come if we get lost in the weeds now. There’s too much at stake.

This is our shot. Six games. Three months. One mis­sion.

Let’s do what’s nec­es­sary now—qual­i­fy. And then, with that mo­men­tum, use it to build bet­ter, to fix deep­er, and to move for­ward as a foot­balling na­tion with pur­pose and pride.

Side by side we stand. Let’s mean it.

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 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