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Tuesday, July 22, 2025

So many factors involved

by

Shaun Fuentes
23 days ago
20250629

Over the last three weeks, the T&T men’s na­tion­al foot­ball team has lived the kind of sched­ule and in­ten­si­ty few out­side of the in­ner cir­cle can tru­ly grasp.

From Lon­don's Uni­ty Cup to Port-of-Spain to San Jose, Cos­ta Ri­ca, across a six-hour flight to San Fran­cis­co, then on­ward to Hous­ton and Las Ve­gas — this cam­paign has been more than just foot­ball. It’s been a test of en­durance, strat­e­gy, and men­tal for­ti­tude, played out in con­fined spaces, un­der bright lights, and with the pres­sure of a na­tion’s ex­pec­ta­tions.

Let’s be hon­est — there were mis­takes. There were mo­ments we didn’t get it right. De­feats hurt. But with­in those mo­ments al­so came lessons, in­di­vid­ual re­silience, team growth, and the kind of ex­pe­ri­ences that can on­ly strength­en a group that is still de­vel­op­ing its iden­ti­ty in a world-class are­na.

The hu­man side of the game

Man­ag­ing 46 in­di­vid­u­als — play­ers, staff, and sup­port — across mul­ti­ple des­ti­na­tions over weeks of in­tense com­pe­ti­tion is no small task. Fa­tigue sets in. These are not just foot­ballers—they are hu­man be­ings liv­ing out of suit­cas­es, stuck in rooms and pitch­es, bound by sched­ules and ho­tel lob­bies.

Try liv­ing for days in a ho­tel where on the third floor opens di­rect­ly in­to Hous­ton’s sprawl­ing Gal­le­ria Mall. Sounds like a treat? Not re­al­ly, when the fo­cus must re­main on train­ing, re­cov­ery, rest, nu­tri­tion, and team meet­ings — while every­thing from out­side temp­ta­tion to men­tal strain lingers at every door. This is the back­drop we rarely talk about.

When we faced the US in San Fran­cis­co just days af­ter ar­riv­ing from Cos­ta Ri­ca, it was off the back of three days of prep. That’s bare­ly enough to get the body mov­ing, much less get tac­tics and men­tal sharp­ness to a peak fol­low­ing two in­tense back-to-back World Cup qual­i­fiers days ear­li­er. Then it was off to Hous­ton to play Haiti, and on to Las Ve­gas for our fi­nal group clash against Sau­di Ara­bia. It was a re­lent­less stretch.

And yet, in mo­ments — a crit­i­cal save, in­jury to play­ers, a goal that sparked en­er­gy — you saw what this team is fight­ing for. Pride. Iden­ti­ty. Progress.

Squad dy­nam­ics and strate­gic tweaks

As we move for­ward, tweak­ing the squad be­comes vi­tal. Fit­ness lev­els, in­juries, tac­ti­cal shifts, iden­ti­fy­ing new per­son­nel to bol­ster the team — all must be con­sid­ered. Not every­one will play every game. Some will be ro­tat­ed for the good of the col­lec­tive. Oth­ers will grow in­to new roles. That’s the evo­lu­tion of any se­ri­ous foot­ball cam­paign.

But to tru­ly build for­ward, we need more than eleven men on the grass. We need buy-in from all lev­els of the na­tion­al psy­che. Be­cause so many fac­tors are in­volved — and they all mat­ter.

We have three mas­sive World Cup qual­i­fy­ing games at home com­ing up from Sep­tem­ber, where vic­to­ries are non-ne­go­tiable. But we al­so know re­sults on the road will de­fine whether we make it to the next lev­el. Every point mat­ters now. Every de­ci­sion counts.

It’s the trav­el lo­gis­tics — plan­ning days in ad­vance how to move dozens of peo­ple and gear ef­fi­cient­ly and safe­ly across bor­ders. It's game prepa­ra­tion — craft­ing train­ing ses­sions, match analy­sis, re­cov­ery plans, and adapt­ing to what­ev­er con­di­tions are thrown our way. It’s the staff who work through the night to arrange meals, flights, mas­sages, laun­dry, visa doc­u­men­ta­tion, and ho­tel lo­gis­tics. None of that shows up on the score­sheet but it con­tributes to­wards it.

Men­tal well-be­ing: The silent bat­tle

Men­tal health isn’t just a buzz­word any­more—it’s re­al. Play­ers who seem fine on the pitch may al­so bat­tle anx­i­ety, home­sick­ness, or burnout be­hind the scenes. Keep­ing minds sharp is just as im­por­tant as keep­ing legs fresh. That’s part of what this team’s sup­port un­der Dwight Yorke and his staff tries to man­age every sin­gle day.

The role of me­dia and pub­lic nar­ra­tive

There’s al­so the ex­ter­nal bat­tle­field — one we wish we didn’t have to face. Me­dia cov­er­age has at times lacked in­sight. Cer­tain cor­ners of the me­dia, per­haps not ful­ly ed­u­cat­ed on the sport’s in­ner work­ings, con­tin­ue to use their plat­forms for per­son­al val­i­da­tion rather than pub­lic en­light­en­ment. This isn't to si­lence crit­i­cism — far from it — but there's a line be­tween con­struc­tive analy­sis and click-chas­ing dis­tor­tion.

When re­ports are put out with­out full con­text, it af­fects the play­ers. It im­pacts the fans. It skews the na­tion­al mood. We all want ac­count­abil­i­ty, but we al­so need bal­ance, un­der­stand­ing, and a shared sense of pur­pose.

It’s the emo­tion­al toll of pub­lic pres­sure — how doubt creeps in when your own coun­try ques­tions your com­mit­ment. How dam­ag­ing it is when the nar­ra­tive be­comes one of sus­pi­cion rather than sup­port. When the play­ers and coach­es are giv­ing every­thing — and they need to know the coun­try is be­hind them. We must el­e­vate the en­er­gy from doubt to be­lief. What we’re build­ing is del­i­cate, but it’s re­al. And with the right sup­port, it can be pow­er­ful.

Build­ing for­ward, to­geth­er

Ul­ti­mate­ly, every­thing we do — the miles we fly, the sys­tems we tweak, the risks we take — is in ser­vice of a bet­ter T&T. This was more than a Gold Cup tour­na­ment and is now more than just a Fi­nal World Cup qual­i­fy­ing round. It’s part of a much larg­er mis­sion to build a foot­balling na­tion that com­petes con­sis­tent­ly, in­spires its peo­ple, and rep­re­sents the red, white, and black with dis­tinc­tion.

Let’s keep per­spec­tive as we move for­ward. Let’s sup­port, cri­tique re­spon­si­bly, and re­mem­ber: in in­ter­na­tion­al foot­ball, so many fac­tors are in­volved—and yet, every one of them mat­ters.

This is not a per­fect team—not yet. But it’s a team with heart, learn­ing through hard­ship, and fight­ing to give T&T some­thing to be­lieve in. The re­sults may not al­ways go our way, but the ef­fort, the in­ten­tion, and the po­ten­tial are un­de­ni­able.

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


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