Big reception planned for Soca Warriors

An embarrassed and perhaps confused Brent Sancho after netting a goal for the opponents (Photo: Trinidad and Tobago Ministry of Tourism - www.socawarriorstt.com)

Port of Spain, Trinidad, June 21, 2006 - The party's over and the Soca Warriors are heading home to the biggest reception the likes of which the country has never seen before said Prime Minister Patrick Manning.

Though disappointed, the Trinidadians are proud to have made it this far in the World Cup 2006 and hoping for a chance in the next.

"They can be proud," Trinidad coach Leo Beenhakker said, "before the start of the tournament the question was if we would lose 6-nil, 8-nil, or 5-nil ... Paraguay deserved their win as they took their chances. But this has been a great experience. In future maybe our players will show a bit more confidence."

Knowing a victory against Paraguay could have taken them into the last 16, they played their best attacking football of the tournament in Kaiserslautern, but the ball just would not go into the net, that it until the Soca Warriors defender Brent Sancho headed the ball into his own net giving Paraguay the first goal of the day in the 25th minute. It was the only goal that Trinidad scored in the three games it played in the first round and it must have been very demoralising because the team failed to recover from that error.

The performance by Paraguay was generally disappointing and much of this match was dominated by the Trinidadians except for the Sancho boo-boo. The second half provided entertaining and competitive fare, and saw Paraguay weather a sustained Soca storm before securing their only points of the tournament with a coolly-taken 86th-minute strike from Nelson Cuevas.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning says although the Soca Warriors failed to advance past the first round of the 2006 World Cup in Germany, they are still winners for making this country known to the world, and they will be welcomed home in grand style.

"I wish to assure them that they will get a reception the likes of which the country has never seen before and we would announce how they would be honoured at that time," Manning said at a press conference at Whitehall, Port of Spain, yesterday.

He praised coach Leo Beenhakker for an outstanding job saying that the Dutchman had earned a place in the hearts of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago.

"The English would never forget that there is a Trinidad and Tobago and the Swedes would now be much more circumspect when they confront us in the future," Manning said.