Trinidad and Tobago players wave during their arrival at Bremen earlier this week. Their long-awaited Cup campaign starts on Saturday against Sweden. - REUTERS
ROTENBURG, Germany (AP);
DWIGHT YORKE figured his chance of playing in the World Cup had long passed him by.
Having missed out by a whisker as a teenager in 1989 after a home loss to the United States, Yorke could only wonder whether his World Cup aspirations were negated when he was born in the tiny twin-island nation of Trinidad and Tobago.
Yorke, who survived a car crash as a two-year-old to become one of the world's top players, spent much of his prime with top English clubs like Aston Villa and Manchester United. There, every four years all he could do was watch as many of his teammates headed off to the World Cup. He admits he even sometimes wished he had been born in England.
TIME HAS FINALLY COME
But Yorke's time has finally come, as Trinidad and Tobago make their first World Cup appearance ever on Saturday against Sweden in Group B.
That game will top all of his Champions League finals, FA Cup finals and Premier League showdowns.
"This is the biggest of all of them," Yorke said. "I've been very fortunate and blessed to have played in massive games and played for a great club of Manchester United's status. But this is the one you ask about as a player. For such a small nation as ours with a population of 1.3 million people, this is truly a remarkable feat."
Yorke and Russell Latapy, the 37-year-old dreadlocked midfielder nicknamed 'The Little Magician', are the only two players who remain from the disappointment of 1989.
Latapy had success at the club level with FC Porto and Glasgow Rangers, but retired from international competition after his country failed to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.
RETIREMENT ENDED
The retirement ended with a phone call last summer.
Yorke, who had been lured back from his own retirement to the national team in February 2005, persuaded Latapy to give it another shot when Trinidad's hopes of qualifying were slim after the team had only four points through six games.
"Dwight was the reason I came back," Latapy said. "I realised it was really the last chance to fulfil a lifelong dream for me and for Dwight."
Latapy had a goal and an assist in his return, a 3-2 victory over Guatemala. Then, after a loss to Costa Rica, the Soca Warriors won in Panama and beat Mexico 2-1 at home to force a two-game playoff with Bahrain.
EASING THE PAIN
Trinidad overcame Bahrain by a 2-1 aggregate score, qualifying for the World Cup and finally easing the pain of 1989.
"To be totally honest with you, I felt my opportunity had gone," Yorke said in reference to 1989. "I'm lucky I had a second chance 17 years later."
The squandered first chance came in Port of Spain, Trinidad, on November 19, 1989, with a whole country poised to celebrate. Needing just a tie against a US team full of college kids, semi-pros and newly naturalised citizens that hadn't been to the World Cup since 1950, Trinidad and Tobago came in full of confidence.
ONLY GOAL
But Paul Caligiuri scored from about 30 yards out in the 31st minute for the only goal of the game, sending the Americans to the World Cup.
Goalkeeper Kelvin Jack said he still remembers the game he watched as a 13-year-old clearly and called the loss "one of the saddest days of my life".
"It was a game we should have won," Jack said. "But on that day we just didn't play well enough and we didn't qualify. Finally we were able to put that streak behind us now and it means so much more to have Dwight and Russell here with us."
Yorke and Latapy feel the same way. They are both older, wiser and a little slower than in 1989. But the excitement is still there.
"Every kid dreams to play in the World Cup," Latapy said. "But saying it as a kid and doing it at the twilight of your career are two totally different things."
