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Barbados Head Coach Russell Latapy (left) and Barbados Football Association President Randy Harris.

Barbados should be proud

The public of Barbados should be proud of their boys. That is the word coming from Head Coach of the Barbados Tridents Russell Latapy as he spoke about the team’s performance in Thursday night’s 1-0 defeat against Panama. With the Senior Men’s side going into their first match of 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers as an underdog, Latapy said that the squad deserved credit for what they were able to achieve in a short space of time.

Speaking to members of the media yesterday during a Zoom media conference, Latapy said that he was extremely proud of all the players and what they were able to pull off.

“By no means we thought that this was going to be a game that we were just going to walk into and it was going to be easy. We are talking about a team that is loaded with professionals who were playing in some of the top leagues in the region and around the world. And we are talking about – my boys – who had two weeks to prepare for this game under very difficult circumstances. I think what we did last night is that we showed the region and the world by extension that we could compete at this level,” he said.

Going on to say that the boys fought as hard as they could and gave everything in both halves, Latapy said that if luck had smiled on them that they could have come away with a goal or two against one of the best teams in the region. Stating that where they were was a good place and that they can only build from there, Latapy added that the aim of the game was to now take the expected points in the group.

“When we came to play these two games we knew the reality is that Panama was going to be a really tough game and we got through that game last night in my opinion, with flying colours.We know that the tables are turned a bit, whereby we’re the favourites against Anguilla. I think this is a game that we can go and try to impose the way that we want to play football and that is what we are going to try to do.”

Noting that he was pleasantly surprised that the players were disappointed in the result, as it showed that they had come a really long way in their development, Latapy said that the focus remained working to get players to buy into his philosophy. “The further on we go with it, the better we become at it and I think last night was an excellent exercise in showing these players what is necessary, what is required, the intensity that we need to play at, the courage and commitment that we need to have. And again, I would give them a pass in every department,” he said.

As he addressed the pundits of the public, Latapy noted that the level of discipline and professionalism shown by his amateur side was exemplary.

“Sometimes for the general public, the expectations do not match the support that the players have. We’re competing with professional players and all we ask is that our players go out there and give 100% every time. To put things into perspective, I have boys who work in a warehouse, I have boys who work on a truck for eight hours and then they come to training for two, three times a week. And they are competing against boys whose livelihood is professional football. So I have boys who are working and training maybe 10, 12 hours a week against boys who are training 30 and 40 hours a week.”

With many casting criticism at Latapy’s appointment and the results achieved in his short tenure, he cited the criticism of Zinedine Zidane, who was one of the most successful players in the world, before saying that he was not bothered in the least.

“I know I’m going to get criticised– it comes with the job. My focus has always been on the same thing, which is the development of the players and to get the best out of them for the development of football. I understand that a lot of people will criticise, but what I would say is if they criticiseme, I have no problem with it. But I’ll defend my players down to the end. I think what the boys did last night, they deserve a lot of credit for it based on everything that we know,” Latapy stated.

Barbados Football Association President Randy Harris was also present and he said that he was thankful to the executive of the Association for having the foresight to send the squad on the much-needed two-week training camp ahead of the first fixture. Having not played competitively for over a year and not touching a ball for two months due to the national pause did the team no favours against a side that recently had friendlies against the USA, Serbia and Japan.

“Our players must be commended because Panama is number-five in the region and a team that even the top teams are wary of playing. We did the work, we did not play as we were training because we weren’t given the chance. It was as simple as that. But the players did not give up, which is a good sign. They tried, they did their best, they dug deep and I think they should be commended.”

Noting that the players saw all comments made by members of the public, whether good or bad, Harris echoed the sentiments of Latapy and called for the public to support the team.

“We need to support them! We need to uplift football in Barbados. Obviously we are going to all fall down at times and we will accept when we make mistakes and when we make decisions that did not work out. And we will pick up ourselves and move forward but we need the support,” he said. (MP)

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